German Drone Manufacturer Director Lives Underground
Stefan Tumann, head of Donaustahl, speaks to Stern for the first time about the alleged Russian operation against him. Since Christmas 2025, he has been constantly changing locations.
Stefan Tumann, head of Donaustahl, speaks to Stern for the first time about the alleged Russian operation against him. Since Christmas 2025, he has been constantly changing locations.
Stefan Tumann, the 39-year-old director of the German drone manufacturer Donaustahl, has stated that he is forced to hide from Russian special services. In an interview with the German media outlet Stern, as reported by European Pravda, he publicly spoke for the first time about the alleged assassination plot against him.
"I am waging a life-and-death struggle with Russian military intelligence," Tumann said. He added that he has drafted a will, an organ donation declaration, and a medical directive. "These are things that people my age usually don't think about yet," he said.
According to him, shortly before Christmas 2025, he received information from German security services about a Russian intelligence operation targeting him. Since then, he says, he has been living practically underground and has been constantly changing his place of residence for several months.
Tumann sleeps next to his computer, and as soon as he wakes up, he immediately throws himself into work to think as little as possible about his situation. The war in Ukraine, he says, has now become his "completely personal war."
His company Donaustahl supplies combat drones to the Ukrainian armed forces for the war against Russia. The contract was concluded at the International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in 2024 in Berlin. "It was clear to me that I would end up in the Russians' crosshairs," Tumann stated.
German media previously reported that Russian special services had planned an assassination attempt on Tumann, but the tragedy was averted thanks to the swift reaction of German services, which had received a warning from colleagues in friendly countries.
Tumann's case is not isolated. In the summer of 2024, the media first reported that an attempt by Russian special services to kill the CEO of the German defense concern Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger, had been prevented. In January 2025, NATO officially confirmed that Russia had intended to kill Papperger.
According to the Alliance, the Kremlin's plans were thwarted by the actions of American and German intelligence services. These plans were only part of broader Russian efforts aimed at assassinating defense industry leaders across Europe.
According to RTL and Stern, German authorities arrested two so-called "one-time agents" in March who were monitoring Tumann and allegedly supposed to prepare the ground for further operations. Bundestag member Bastian Ernst stated that the assassination plot was not in its early stages and that, according to his information, Tumann was intended to be killed with the nerve agent "Novichok." German security services consider this case part of the intensification of Russian hybrid warfare aimed at intimidating leaders of German defense companies to make them abandon arms and technology deliveries to Ukraine. However, the opposite happened: Tumann says he now views the war against Ukraine as his own fight as well.
BILD reports that since the end of last year, Tumann has been living under enhanced protection and constantly changing his place of residence due to the risk of poisoning with "Novichok." It all began with the entrepreneur being followed by "one-time" recruited agents, who were later arrested by the police. Subsequently, the motives for the surveillance were established, and given the intention to use "Novichok," the mastermind was also identified. Tumann has already drafted a will, filled out an organ donation declaration, and instructions for cases of severe injury or death, but he does not give up and says he is "waging a duel with Russian military intelligence for his own life."
