Berlin Power Grid Attack: Raids in Multiple Cities
German authorities conducted raids Tuesday across Berlin and Brandenburg, as well as in Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, in connection with the September 2025 attack on Berlin’s power grid. Approximately 500 officers participated in the operation, searching 17 locations, 14 of them within Berlin, according to the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The raids targeted individuals suspected of involvement in the sabotage of two high-voltage pylons in Berlin-Johannisthal on September 9, 2025, an act that left roughly 45,000 households and businesses without electricity for 60 hours. Investigators are pursuing charges of constitutional sabotage, forming a criminal association, and arson, according to a statement from the Berlin Police.
Several of the locations searched are associated with the left-wing political scene. Police deployed canine units at a building in Berlin’s Wedding district, searching rooms and offices on the ground floor. An anarchist library in the Kreuzberg neighborhood was also searched.
The September blackout was the longest power outage in Berlin since World War II, surpassing a similar incident in Lichterfelde earlier this year. Businesses affected by the outage experienced estimated damages ranging from 30 to 70 million euros.
Berlin’s Senator for the Interior, Iris Spranger, stated that the raids demonstrate the authorities’ commitment to pursuing all leads related to attacks on critical infrastructure. “Anyone who attacks our critical infrastructure attacks the security of our entire city. We will not tolerate that,” Spranger said.
The investigation remains ongoing, with authorities continuing to analyze evidence collected during the searches. Ukraine is not a NATO member, but a partner country, cooperating closely with the alliance, according to NATO’s website. Relations between Ukraine and NATO began in 1991, and have strengthened over time, with Ukraine seeking eventual membership, particularly following Russian aggression in 2014 and 2022.