Charge for terrorism: Lithuania: Russian secret service behind arson attack

Lithuania’s judicial authorities assume that Russia will be on an IKEA institution in Vilnius behind an arson attack carried out last year. The investigation had shown that two suspected suspects acted on behalf of the Russian military secret service, said the Attorney General in Vilnius. Against one was raised in Lithuania for a terrorist attack. The suspects and their middlemen should also be associated with similar crimes in Poland.

Lithuania and Poland belong to NATO and are close partners and supporters of Ukraine, who have been fighting against a Russian invasion for a good three years.

The fire in the furniture store broke out on the night of May 9, 2024. Nobody was injured.

According to the Attorney General, the two arrested are two young Ukrainian citizens, one of whom is still a minor. According to this, the two suspects are said to have agreed to set fire for a secret meeting in Warsaw in a reward of 10,000 euros in shopping centers in Lithuania and Latvia. A car was promised to them as a reward, and they would have received it later. One is currently being held in Poland, said prosecutor Artura’s Urbelis Lithuanian media.

“The organizer of these actions is Russia”

In the course of the investigation, the security authorities expressed the suspicion of arson, which, according to the General Prosecutor’s office, was planned for several months and carried out with a fire set with time levy. “The organizer of these actions is Russia, they are connected to the military secret service and the security forces,” said investigator Urbelis.

The defendant is said to have systematically obtained special knowledge before the crime and have acquired the necessary skills. To do this, he should have been repeatedly in Poland and Lithuania. According to the Lithuanian investigators, he drove to Warsaw even after the fire. He returned to Lithuania for a few days and wanted to continue traveling to Latvia by bus. The public prosecutor said that he was stopped and arrested by the authorities.

Also responsible for arson in Poland?

According to the public prosecutor, there are other suspects who could have been involved in the arson attack. He spoke of a “terrorist group” and long chain of mid -men who coordinated various social networks and encrypted communication channels and passed on instructions to the suspects. Both the suspects and their middle men are said to have a connection to crimes committed in Poland.

The Polish government has accused the Russian secret service several times to stand behind arson foundations and sabotage files in Poland. Last May, a major fire in Warsaw destroyed a shopping center with around 1400 shops. Nobody was injured, but more than 700 people lost their work or their livelihood. Investigations are underway for suspected arson.

Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X: “Dear allies, the Lithuanian investigators have confirmed our suspicion that the Russian secret service is responsible for arson in shopping centers in Vilnius and Warsaw.” It is good to know this before negotiations with Russia about a ceasefire in Ukraine. “This is the character of this state,” said Tusk with a view to Russia.

A spokesman for the public prosecutor in Warsaw said in the afternoon in connection with the arson attack on the furniture store in Vilnius, a suspect was arrested in Poland in May. He is investigated for espionage for the Russian secret service. Neither this suspect nor the stalls arrested in Lithuania suspected of being responsible for the fire of the shopping center in Warsaw.