Lithuania discovered a group of Russian saboteurs, coordinated by the GRU. They were targeting attacks including in Romania
Russia's GRU military intelligence service was responsible for an attempted arson attack in 2024 on a factory in Lithuania that supplies radio scanners to the Ukrainian military, Lithuanian officials said Friday.
GRU Special Forces PHOTO: Shutterstock
Six citizens from Spain, Colombia, Cuba, Russia and Belarus have been charged in connection with the incident, and the group tried to carry out similar attacks in Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic, Vilnius police and prosecutors said, according to Reuters.
“The crimes were coordinated again the orders were given to the executors by a group of people who are in Russia and who have connections with the Russian GRU”the deputy head of the criminal police in Lithuania, Saulius Briginas, told reporters.
The incident is part of a series of attacks and attempted sabotage detected in Europe in recent years, amid the war in Ukraine. In 2024, an IKEA store in Vilnius was set on fire by people whom Lithuanian authorities believe are also connected to Russian intelligence services, and the case is being treated as an act of “terrorism”. Around the same time, a large shopping center in Warsaw (Poland) was destroyed by a fire that Polish authorities believe was also a deliberate act of sabotage linked to Russian services. Security services in Poland and other states also reported plans to attack facilities with explosives and arson targeting infrastructure and factories providing support to Ukraine, some of which were foiled before significant damage was done.
