Lithuanian authorities believe that Russian intelligence orchestrated a May 2024 arson attack on an IKEA warehouse, Artūras Urbelis, a senior official at the Organized Crime and Corruption Investigation Department of Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office, said on Monday.
The suspected attack took place in Vilnius on the night of May 8, 2024. Metal racks holding merchandise — including mattresses, tiles, furniture, and plastic bags — caught fire. No injuries were reported.
Urbelis stated that Lithuanian prosecutors consider the incident an act of terrorism. Investigators believe it was carried out by two young men under 20, both Ukrainian citizens. One suspect, a minor, has been charged in Lithuania with organizing a terrorist act and illegally possessing explosives. The second suspect was arrested in Poland and will reportedly stand trial there.
“[I]t has been established that the masterminds behind these actions were linked to Russia through a series of intermediaries […], and they have links with military intelligence and security forces,” Urbelis said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
Saulius Briginas, deputy head of the Lithuanian Police Department, said that investigators believe the incendiary device was hidden in the warehouse among flammable goods the evening before the attack.
According to a press release from the Lithuanian prosecutor’s office, one of the suspects traveled to Warsaw in the spring of 2024, where he attended a meeting in which he and another person agreed to carry out arson attacks on shopping centers in Lithuania and Latvia for 10,000 euros. The suspect reportedly filmed the fire, then traveled back to Warsaw, where he received a BMW as payment. On March 13, he returned to Lithuania, retrieved “materials for carrying out a new terrorist act,” and boarded a bus to Riga. According to prosecutors, he never made it to Latvia and was arrested before crossing the border.
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