Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Germany of "wanting war again", after Berlin blamed Moscow for a drone attack on Leipzig airport last month and the two countries responded by shutting down each other's cultural centres. The row escalates tensions between Germany and Russia at a sensitive moment, coming as US negotiators hold peace talks with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and amid a wider pattern of drone and sabotage incidents linked to the Ukraine conflict.

German police found a drone near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig airport on 4 August, prompting a bomb disposal response and grounded flights; Germany accused "low-level agents" of a Russian "hybrid attack". Lavrov invoked comparisons to the Second World War and accused chancellor Friedrich Merz of "declaring war" through plans to build up German military strength. The dispute follows Vladimir Putin's warning that Russia must be "prepared for anything" amid Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries, and comes despite Russia and Ukraine agreeing a 72-hour ceasefire as US officials Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Putin in Moscow and then travelled to Kyiv; separately, a German power plant near Brandenburg was reportedly targeted with homemade explosive rockets.