BERLIN (AP) – Authorities have arrested a Russian man as a suspect in the stabbings of two Ukrainian men in southern Germany, police said Sunday.
The two Ukrainians, aged 23 and 36, who lived in the southern German county of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, were killed on the premises of a shopping center in the village of Murnau in Upper Bavaria.
Shortly after the killing on Saturday evening, police arrested a 57-year-old Russian national on suspicion of murder, German news agency dpa reported.
Murnau, Bavaria, April 28, 2024: Flowers and a small Ukrainian flag were placed at the site of the shopping center where two Ukrainian men were murdered on Saturday night (April 27, 2024). Police were able to arrest a man believed to be an emergency suspect. He is a 57 year old Russian man. Photo: Constanze Wilz/dpa (Photo by Constanze Wilz/picture Alliance via Getty Images)
In line with German privacy rules, the names of the victim and suspect were not released. A possible motive for the killing is not yet known, authorities said. It was also not clear whether the three knew each other.
Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, more than 1 million Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Germany.
Germany also has a significant Russian immigrant community, with the majority of 2.5 million German-Russians who immigrated to Germany after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
