Lithuanian prosecutors on Monday accused Russia of orchestrating an arson assault on an IKEA retailer in Vilnius final 12 months, calling it “an act of terrorism.”
Government mentioned they’d “affordable grounds” to imagine that unspecified Russian “army buildings and safety services and products” arranged and financed the Might 9, 2024, assault at the Swedish store within the Lithuanian capital.
“We regard this act as an act of terrorism with severe penalties,” prosecutor Arturas Urbelis instructed newshounds.
Prosecutors mentioned two Ukrainian electorate had been suspected within the case, with one arrested in Lithuania and the opposite in Poland.
“It’s been established that thru a chain of intermediaries… the organizers of those crimes are in Russia and this is attached to army intelligence and safety forces,” Urbelis mentioned.
The prosecutor’s place of work mentioned one suspect entered Poland in early 2024 and, all the way through a secret assembly in Warsaw, agreed to set fireplace to and bomb buying groceries facilities in Lithuania and Latvia in change for 10,000 euros ($10,904).
“Multiple grocery store has been set on fireplace, and no longer simply supermarkets,” Urbelis mentioned when requested about conceivable hyperlinks to equivalent arson assaults in Poland.
“It’s glaring that the individuals we have now known, the perpetrators and the intermediaries, also are connected to the felony acts dedicated in Poland,” he added.
The assaults, together with the IKEA arson, had been meant to “intimidate” and “destabilize” Lithuania and force the EU member state to halt its reinforce for Ukraine, officers added.
Polish High Minister Donald Tusk known as it “exceptionally perfidious” for Russia to rent Ukrainians as saboteurs.
“The investigation of the Lithuanian prosecutor’s place of work has showed our suspicions that answerable for environment fires to buying groceries facilities in Vilnius and Warsaw are the Russian secret services and products,” Tusk mentioned on X.
“Just right to understand ahead of negotiations. Such is the character of this state [Russia],” he added, in an obvious connection with peace talks on finishing the conflict in Ukraine.
In Might, Tusk introduced the arrest of 9 folks connected to an alleged Russian undercover agent ring suspected of plotting sabotage in Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and perhaps Sweden.
The crowd — comprising Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish electorate — used to be accused of sporting out arson assaults and violent attacks, with some participants believed to were recruited from felony circles.
AFP contributed reporting.
