Russia-backed network behind detonating parcels in Europe, Lithuania says

Fifteen people have been charged over an alleged Russia-backed operation that planned arson attacks across Europe through courier services, Lithuanian prosecutors have said.

In a statement on Wednesday, Lithuania’s prosecutor general’s office in Vilnius said investigations had revealed that suspects with ties to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service, had led the operations.

The suspects included citizens from Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine.

The network is believed to have hidden home-made explosive devices, containing the highly flammable substance thermite, inside massage pillows and tubes of cosmetics.

Some of these incendiary devices exploded last year in the UK, Germany and Poland while being transported by the courier services DHL and DPD.

Four packages were posted on 19 July 2024 by a member of the network, prosecutors say.

Two of them were sent on DHL cargo planes to the UK, where one exploded in a warehouse belonging to the courier in the English city of Birmingham. The other did not detonate because of a technical defect, according to the Lithuanian prosecutor general’s office.

Another pair of parcels was sent to Poland by DPD, with one catching fire at a logistics centre in the German city of Leipzig and the other combusting in a delivery truck driving through Poland.

Although the Lithuanian authorities did not specify how many arrests had been made in connection with these incidents, they confirmed that international arrest warrants had been issued for three people.

More than 30 searches were carried out in Lithuania, Poland, Latvia and Estonia, which uncovered six kilograms of explosives, they added.

Investigators also said that some of the suspects were involved in an arson attack on an Ikea store in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in 2024.

The Lithuanian authorities have previously suggested that the explosive devices sent around Europe last year were a test run for a Russian plot to target cargo planes heading to North America.