Lithuania announces exposure of Russian intelligence group preparing terrorist attacks in Europe

The General Prosecutor's Office and the Criminal Bureau of the Lithuanian Police announced the detention of a group of people who organized and planned to carry out four terrorist attacks in Europe. According to the investigation, the group was led by Russians with ties to Russian intelligence, and the suspects include Ukrainian citizens, reports is the country's public broadcaster LRT.

Law enforcers reported that in July 2024, a Lithuanian citizen, acting jointly with other offenders, used the international delivery and transportation services of DHL and DPD and sent four parcels with improvised explosive devices from Vilnius to different European countries.

Two of the parcels were addressed to the UK and sent by DHL cargo planes, and two more were sent to Poland by truck; as a result, three of the cargoes exploded and caught fire during transportation on German, Polish, and British territory, and another did not work due to a faulty detonator, law enforcement officials said.

"The investigation established that the powerful incendiary improvised explosive devices were controlled by electronic timers hidden in massage (vibration) pillows. Additional mixtures of combustibles to enhance the incendiary effect were in tubes of hygiene and cosmetics. For a striking effect, thermite was used, a substance of industrial and military use with an extremely high combustion temperature," LRT reports.

Given the importance of the case, the European agency Eurojust has set up a joint investigation team involving law enforcement and intelligence agencies from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States and Canada.

Law enforcement officials provide the following details of the investigation:

→ the organization and coordination of the crimes were carried out by Russian citizens with ties to the military intelligence of the aggressor country;

→ several crime coordinators are directly linked to the attempted terrorist attack in May 2024 in Vilnius, when the IKEA shopping center was set on fire;

→ it is about a citizen of Ukraine, Danylo Hromov, who also uses the personal data of a Russian citizen, Yaroslav Mikhailov, as well as a citizen of Lithuania and the Russian Federation, Thomas Dovgan Stabacinskas;

→ during the preparation of terrorist attacks, other citizens of Lithuania, Russia, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine were involved in certain tasks (they were found through acquaintances, recruited and supported in the Telegram messenger, offering rewards and paying in cryptocurrency);

→ the group acted in an organized manner, observing strict secrecy, dividing tasks between different performers, most often unrelated to each other (the transportation of parcels and combustibles, their transfer to other participants, hiding in caches, activating devices, etc;)

→ more than 30 searches were conducted in Lithuania, Poland, Latvia and Estonia.

During the investigation, explosives hidden in tin cans and detonators were seized from the illicit traffickers, law enforcement officials said.

"Some of the devices were made in such a way that the explosion had a targeted effect. Hexogen was used for their production. The total capacity of the seized devices in TNT equivalent exceeded 6 kg. According to available data, these devices could have been intended for other terrorist attacks," the media outlet reports.

At this stage of the pre-trial investigation, 15 defendants – citizens of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine – were suspected of organizing and preparing the above crimes.

• In July, Polish Prime Minister Tusk announced that 32 people suspected of involvement in sabotage and attacks had already been detained in Poland by order of the Russian special services. The defendants are citizens of Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Colombia.
• At the end of August, Latvian law enforcement detained a local citizen who, according to the investigation, was spying on military facilities and transmitted data to the aggressor country of the Russian Federation.