Germany is launching an investigation into a Russian citizen who is suspected of killing two Ukrainian soldiers in Bavaria at the weekend.
On Saturday evening, two Ukrainian men, aged 23 and 36, were found stabbed to death outside a shopping center in the village of Murnau in the south of Germany. Both are said to have been soldiers who were in the country to undergo medical rehabilitation. One soldier died on the spot, while the other died of his injuries after being taken to hospital.
Shortly afterwards, the police arrested a 57-year-old Russian on suspicion of murder, writes Sky News, which quotes the German news agency DPA.
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Unknown motive
It is not clear if the three men knew each other.
The prosecutor’s office in Munich says on Monday that they cannot rule out a political motive for the murders, but there is currently nothing to suggest that the murders are connected to the war between Ukraine and Russia.
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German police have not released the names of those killed or the suspect due to German privacy regulations.
But according to CNN and several media outlets, the Ukrainian authorities report that it is supposed to be Ukrainian soldiers.
– According to preliminary information, the deceased citizens were military personnel undergoing medical rehabilitation in Germany, writes the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.
One million refugees
After the war in Ukraine broke out, several Ukrainian refugees fled to other countries in Europe. According to the British newspaper, approximately one million refugees have arrived in Germany since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the neighboring country.
In October 2022, Ukrainian citizens were the second largest foreign population in Germany after Turkish citizens.
Norway, for its part, has taken in between 70,000 and 75,000 Ukrainian refugees since the start of the war.
