Russia Accused of Plot to Target Cargo Aircraft Destined for US and Canada

Another allegation that Moscow was planning sabotage attacks in Europe as part of its hybrid war against Ukraine and its allies emerged this week. Lithuanian presidential adviser Kęstutis Budrys said on Tuesday that the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence organization, was responsible for a plot to place incendiary devices on civilian cargo aircraft.

Budrys said that Gitanas Nausėda, Lithuania’s president, has demanded NATO action saying: “The Presidency confirms that Russian military intelligence is behind the transport of incendiary packages, and we are telling our allies that it’s not random, it’s part of [Moscow’s] military operations. This requires a NATO response.”

Lithuania’s statement referred to the uncovering of the Russian plot after an incendiary device being sent for shipment to the US ignited in a DHL courier depot in Leipzig Germany in July. Two similar devices had functioned at a transport company near Warsaw and at Minworth near Birmingham, in the UK, according to the Polish news outlet Gazeta Wyborcza.

Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene said some of the packages had originated from Lithuania, and said that arrests had been made for which pre-trial investigation was under way in coordination with law enforcement agencies from other countries.

The Wall Street Journal, citing Western security officials, said that “two incendiary devices, shipped via DHL, were part of a covert Russian operation that ultimately aimed to start fires aboard cargo or passenger aircraft flying to the US and Canada.”

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The devices, described as “personal massagers filled with a magnesium incendiary mix,” were linked to “suspected Russian operatives’ plot to smuggle incendiary devices onto a cargo plane in Germany, in what is believed to have been a trial run for future attacks targeting North America-bound aircraft,” an unnamed European security official told the Washington Post.

An explosives expert said that magnesium-based fires are difficult to extinguish without specialist firefighting equipment which is not normally carried on board civilian aircraft.

The same source said that investigations following the incident in July, after that device had ignited prematurely, found that identical packages minus the flammable contents addressed to US and Canadian destinations had been intercepted. It is believed that these were “an apparent test run to see if the parcels could be successfully delivered.”

Meanwhile the BBC cited a statement from Katarzyna Calow-Jaszewska from Poland’s prosecutor’s office as saying that “four people were charged in connection with camouflaged explosives that ‘detonated during land and air transport’ in the UK in July.

The statement said: “The group’s activities consisted of sabotage and diversion related to sending parcels containing camouflaged explosives and dangerous materials via courier companies to European Union countries and Great Britain, which spontaneously ignited or detonated during land and air transport, and also to test the transfer channel for such parcels, which were ultimately to be sent to the United States of America and Canada.”

“We are aware of two recent incidents involving shipments in our network,” a DHL official said in a statement. “We are fully cooperating with the relevant authorities to protect our people, our network and our customers’ shipments.”

US officials told the War Zone military issues website that “the US continues to be vigilant against threats to the aviation and air cargo systems.” They cited the US 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment saying, “We work closely with industry to take steps to protect against any potential threats whenever they emerge. At this time, there is no current active threat targeting US-bound flights.”

While some security experts see the plot “as a provocative and particularly dangerous escalation in an alleged sabotage campaign directed by Moscow against NATO countries helping Ukraine defend itself against a Russian military invasion,” there is little direct evidence linking it to the Kremlin or Moscow’s intelligence apparatus, despite the Lithuanian statement.

Some commentators say they see no logic in this being a Russian government inspired attack, asking why would President Vladimir Putin take such a risk and what would be the ultimate objective? Causing parcels to explode on cargo aircraft could disrupt commercial logistical effort but would have insignificant battlefield impact as weapons and military materiel is transported on military aircraft.

Assigning logic to the Kremlin’s actions, however, has often been an exercise in futility. After almost three years of war in Ukraine it could be argued that there is no logic in continuing a “special military operation” that seems to have failed in its aims. Nevertheless, government and civilian security officials are paying attention to the threat and instituting appropriate countermeasures.