Russia is behind explosive packages sent from Lithuania to European countries, a Lithuanian presidential adviser said on Tuesday (5), amid warning among NATO countries that sabotage organized by Moscow almost caused an air disaster.
Western governments and intelligence agencies in Europe have already pointed to Moscow as the source of a series of fires and acts of sabotage in Europe aimed at destabilizing Ukraine’s allies.
Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported in October that explosive packages that caused fires at mail depots in the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland in July originated in Lithuania.
The UK and Germany have been investigating packages that caught fire in warehouses in Birmingham and Leipzig, with Berlin saying a plane crash was narrowly avoided when an air cargo package caught fire.
“We are telling our allies that it is not random, it is part of military operations,” Kestutis Budrys, an adviser to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, told Ziniu radio on Tuesday.
“We need to neutralize and stop it at the source, and the source is Russian military intelligence,” he said.
Budrys’ comments were the first time a Lithuanian official had pointed the finger at Russian military intelligence for a specific act of sabotage.
Reuters was unable to reach Budrys for comment by phone. The Russian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gazeta Wyborcza reported that a package caused a fire in a truck at a location belonging to a courier company near Warsaw.
Poland said in October it had detained four people in an investigation into explosive packages being mailed to European Union countries and the United Kingdom as part of a plan that ultimately aimed to send such packages to the United States and Canada.
Poland also closed the Russian consulate in the western city of Poznan due to suspected Russian sabotage attempts.
The director general of the UK Security Service (MI5), Ken McCallum, said in October that Russia’s GRU military intelligence service was trying to cause “chaos” in the UK and Europe.
This content was originally published in Lithuania accuses Russia of sending explosive packages to Ukraine’s allies on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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