Virnius
Reuters
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The explosion of the parcel carried by the DHL and DPD in Europe in 2024 was organized and overseen by Russian citizens with ties to Russian military intelligence by Russian citizens, the Lithuania General Prosecutors Office and criminal police said on Wednesday.
Lithuanian security officials last year said the four plots were part of a test run in a Russian plot that caused a cargo flight to the US.
A joint statement by the two Lithuanian services said the plot contained an explosive device caused by an electronic timer hidden in a vibrating massage pillow.
It has identified that Russian documents have been issued as coordinators of schemes by Ukrainian citizen Daniil Gromov, who was issued under the name of Jaroslav Mikhailov, and Lithuanian citizen Tomas Dovgan Stabacinskas.
The same two men said they organized a fire at an IKEA store in Vilnius in 2024.
“It has been decided that the aforementioned individuals act in an organized manner, adhere to very strict conspiracies and divide individual tasks,” the statement read.
There was no immediate response to the statement from Russia. Last year, Russia refused to orchestrate IKEA fires and regularly dismissed Western accusations of Western malignant activity as evidence of last phobia.
European governments and intelligence agency have previously pointed to Moscow as a possible source of fires and sabotage aimed at destabilizing Ukrainian allies.
A statement from Lithuania said six kilograms of explosives were discovered during investigation and 15 people were charged, including citizens from Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine.
An international search warrant was issued for three men, Gromov, Stabacinskas and Russian citizen Andrej Baburov.
The statement said four plots were mailed by Vilnius on July 19, 2024, including “an explosive comprehensive accusations of homemade products.”
One of them was sent by DHL and the next day he started a fire at Leipzig Airport in eastern East Germany, just before he was loaded onto a British-bound DHL plane.
On July 21, while crossing Poland, a second parcel exploded on a DPD truck, and the third exploded on July 22 at the DHL warehouse in Birmingham, England.
Organizers recruited people for the task via the Telegram messaging app and paid in cryptocurrency, the statement said.
