Germany's Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Sunday warned that hybrid warfare attacks had become a daily threat to the country.

"We're not at war, but we are the daily target of hybrid warfare," Dobrindt told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag following the discovery of a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig/Halle Airport.

"Espionage, sabotage, cyberattacks, or covert operations by foreign powers aimed at destabilizing Germany or inflicting direct harm are a constant reality," Dobrindt said.

He also noted that the country is stepping up research into drones to address new security threats.

A new drone security research center will be established later in August at a German Aerospace Center (DLR) test airport in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, Dobrindt said.

Drones spotted above military base in west Germany

On Saturday, Germany's armed forces confirmed that two drones had been spotted late on Thursday over a German military base in Mechernich in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia near the Belgian border.

The drones were detected at around 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) over the Bundeswehr base, a German armed forces spokesperson said.

German media reported that the base hosts personnel responsible for the maintenance of US Patriot air defense systems, which play a key role in defending Ukraine against Russian aerial attacks.

Drone incident at Leipzig airport

The sighting in Mechernich comes just two days after the discovery of a drone carrying explosives a Ukrainian transport plane at Leipzig/Halle Airport, an incident Dobrindt called a "hybrid attack scenario."

While German government officials have refrained from publicly blaming any foreign country over the Leipzig incident, some lawmakers have pointed fingers at Russia, which has been at war with Ukraine since its full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.

On Friday, the Russian Embassy in Berlin dismissed the Leipzig event as a "fabricated provocation" and said Russia was once more being accused of hostile actions "without the slightest evidence being presented."

Edited by: Louis Oelofse

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