Three men have gone on trial in Germany charged with carrying out espionage on behalf of the Russian secret service.

The defendants are accused of spying on a war-wounded former Ukrainian officer in Germany. The trial began before the State Security Senate of the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court.

Prosecutors said the intelligence-gathering operation was carried out as preparation for the man’s murder.

An Armenian national was allegedly assigned the operation in early May 2024 and subsequently recruited two accomplices, a Ukrainian and a Russian.

The target is said to have been lured to a meeting in a café in downtown Frankfurt in June 2024, while the defendants were on standby to identify the man and collect further information.

However, he had already contacted the German police, so the meeting did not take place. The three defendants were arrested in Frankfurt on June 19, 2024 and have been in custody ever since.

They are accused of working for a foreign intelligence service in a particularly serious case. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office brought charges in May 2025.

The Armenian national’s defence lawyers rejected the allegations in court. After the charges were read out, they stated that the prosecution’s evidence was incomplete and that possible alternative scenarios had not been investigated.

dpa