Polish authorities believe the Russians are practicing planting incendiary devices on planes bound for the United States and Canada.
Polish prosecutors said a series of incidents involving fires involving parcels carried by courier services in Poland, Germany and the UK were the result of a Moscow operation looking for ways to start fire on transatlantic cargo flights to the US and Canada. Late last month, the head of Poland’s prosecutor’s office, Katarzyna Calow-Jaszewska, announced that four suspects had been arrested as part of the investigation into the mysterious fire.
Western intelligence agencies, according to American media, now consider the fires that occurred in July to be part of a sabotage campaign organized by the Russian military intelligence service GRU. Officially, the Russian authorities categorically deny that they have anything to do with this case.
Fire in the air
In a statement, the Polish prosecutor’s office claimed that a “group of saboteurs from foreign intelligence services” was involved in sending parcels filled with explosives through courier companies of Europe with the expectation that the fire will occur in the air. The parcels sent electric massagers containing a flammable “magnesium-based” substance, which is difficult to extinguish if ignited.
“In addition, the purpose of the sabotage group was to check the transmission channel of such packages, which were ultimately intended to be sent to the United States of America and Canada,” said Calow-Jaszewska.
Some of the packages were sent from Lithuania, where Prosecutor General Nida Grunskienė said arrests were also made there as part of the investigation into the case.
Currently, according to Grunskiene, prosecutors are conducting a preliminary investigation, which also involves law enforcement agencies of other countries.
According to Western intelligence agencies, a magnesium-based flammable substance was placed in the two electric massagers, which were supposed to ignite when both packages were on the plane bound for the United States.
But the devices caught fire early, sparking fires at DHL warehouses in Leipzig, Germany, and Birmingham, UK.
Russia rejects everything
“I’m not sure that the Russian political leadership will understand the consequences if one of these packages explodes, causing mass casualties,” Poland’s foreign intelligence chief, Pawel Szota, told the WSJ.
Representatives of other Western intelligence agencies also believe that the Russian military intelligence GRU was behind the sending of the parcels. Russia has denied the accusations against it.
The Press Secretary of the President of Russia, Dmitry Peskov, commented on the report of the Wall Street Journal: “Both the aforementioned publication and other publications, which are highly respected, often carry out vague filling of information, which always unsupported by any reliable information. This, I think, is one of those fillers.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.