exclusive
Despite the war, the Fraport airport group remains involved in a Russian airport. research by WDR, NDR and SZ now show for the first time that this was also used by military machines. Hesse and the city of Frankfurt hold shares in Fraport.
Shortly after the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, German and international corporations withdrew from Russia one after the other. The German airport group Fraport, however, is still involved in a Russian airport. research by WDR, NDR and “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ) are now showing for the first time that it has been used by military machines in recent months.
The German group holds a quarter of the shares in the operating company of St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport in Russia – and is now coming under pressure. When asked, Fraport assured that business was suspended after Russia invaded Ukraine, and that Pulkovo is only a civil passenger airport. Since WDR, NDR and SZ as part of the Pandora Papers reported that Pulkowo can also be used for military flights, but a heated debate about participation flared up in Hessian state politics.
The State of Hesse and the City of Frankfurt are significantly involved
With more than 30 percent, the state of Hesse is an important owner of Fraport, alongside the city of Frankfurt with around 20 percent through its public utility company. The state government and Fraport had to explain themselves again and again, and Fraport Supervisory Board Chairman Michael Boddenberg, who is also Hessian Finance Minister, repeatedly assured that it was not possible to get rid of the stake – unless there was evidence that the airport was used for military purposes.
airport from military machines used
“A legally manageable event,” Boddenberg called it in a budget committee meeting on May 4, 2022, the minutes of which WDR, NDR and SZ is available, “that St. Petersburg Airport would be directly involved in acts of war. Military aircraft that are on the road in the war would then land there. That could be such an event, possibly also legally manageable.”
Should probably mean: Then exit clauses could be applied, which could allow Fraport to exit the stake. At the same time, both the country and the group have always emphasized that they have no knowledge of the use of the airport for military purposes, that they do not know what takes off and land there and that they have no influence on it anyway.
research by WDR/NDR and SZ now prove that in the approximately 16 months that the war lasted, a number of military aircraft used the airport. Some were later even sanctioned by the United States, the United States assigns the machines in question to the Wagner mercenaries.
transport plane with problematic owner
Only about a month after the Hessian Budget Committee debated possible warlike activities, in June 2022, an IL-76 aircraft with the number RA-78835 used Pulkowo Airport, which satellite images show. In May 2023 landed her on the US sanctions list – Specifically, it says about this machine that it is “property in which the 224th Flight Unit State Airlines has an interest”.
And further, the 224th Flight Unit State Airlines is a “state-owned company that has been detached from the Russian Air Force to handle commercial air cargo shipments that brought Wagner troops and equipment to countries known to operate Wagner operates there.”
The Wagner group played a major role in Russia’s warfare to date. For a long time it was considered the sharpest sword in the Ukraine war, and the mercenaries are accused of serious war crimes such as murder, torture and rape.
satellite imagery show bombers at airport
Further satellite images show that just a few weeks later another plane, which the USA later also sanctioned for using Wagner troops, was at Pulkovo Airport: On July 12, 2022, plane number RA-82014 used the airport in St. Petersburg. In the list of sanctions from May 2023, the USA also lists them as “property in which the 224th Flight Unit State Airlines has an interest” – i.e. as one of the machines that is said to have flown for the Wagner troops.
The Hessian state government repeatedly had to explain the possibilities of using Pulkowo for military purposes. On March 6, the FDP made a small request. Satellite images now show that a Tu-22M3 bomber had landed in Pulkovo just a day earlier.
One such Tu-22M3 bomber landed in Pulkovo back in March.
The machine is known for being able to drop KH-22 cruise missiles, which are actually intended to be fired at ships, but were also used by Russia in the war of aggression against Ukraine against civilian targets, such as in cities. Whether and to what extent the mentioned machines were actually used in the Ukraine war cannot be proven by the pictures.
The fact that Russia is using the Tu-22M3 type in Ukraine has been repeatedly reported – for example in January 2023. CNN reported an attack by such bombers on civilian targets in Dnipro, where cruise missiles dropped destroyed houses and killed dozens of people.
Hessian state government without “new knowledge”
When the Hessian state government responded to the small inquiry at the beginning of May, it said about the possible military use of Pulkowo: “Neither Fraport nor the state government have new knowledge on this subject. The same applies to the Foreign Office, where the Hessian Ministry of Finance recently inquired again.”
However, when asked, the Foreign Office of Minister Annalena Baerbock replied that information on the subject had been transmitted, but that it was classified as classified – the Foreign Office could not say anything beyond that. Classified items, i.e. secret information, can be secret service information from partner services of the Federal Intelligence Service.
The Hessian FDP politician Marion Schardt-Sauer is appalled that the state government insists that it has no knowledge of military use: “Minister Boddenberg must ask himself how much evidence the black-green state government still needs in order to be involved in the put an end to Pulkovo Airport,” said Schardt-Sauer. Holding on to this Hessian state participation can hardly be justified. One gets the impression that the finance minister doesn’t really want to know what’s happening there.
Fraport emphasizes civilian use of Pulkowo
When asked, Fraport replied that the group was not aware that the airport operating company NCG was handling military flights in connection with the ongoing war operations. In this case, there is no immediate possibility of exiting the project. Pulkovo is a civil aviation airport. In the immediate vicinity of it there are military airfields available to the Russian army. In principle, however, every civil airport worldwide could also be used for military purposes in special cases, according to the group.
The city of Frankfurt refers to Fraport and to the fact that, as a shareholder, it is not involved in the operational business and has no knowledge of flight movements. When asked, the Hesse Ministry of Finance replied that there was still no reliable evidence that Pulkovo Airport was used for Russian military operations in Ukraine. Nothing has changed in this assessment of the situation, even after repeated contact with the Federal Foreign Office. Fraport has no exit option.