Western security officials believe Russia is likely plotting to plant incendiary devices on U.S.-bound airplanes as part of a broader sabotage campaign against the West, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Investigators have linked Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, to two incendiary devices that ignited in July at DHL logistics hubs in Leipzig, Germany, and Birmingham, England. The devices, disguised as electric massagers and embedded with a flammable substance, were shipped from Lithuania. Investigators believe the attacks were part of a test run to smuggle incendiary devices onto cargo and passenger aircrafts bound for the United States and Canada, the Journal reported Monday.
Polish authorities arrested four individuals and are looking for at least two more in connection with the fires. The suspects were seeking to "test the transfer channel for such parcels, which were ultimately to be sent to the United States of America and Canada," Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office said. Poland has not released the names or nationalities of the suspects.
The head of Poland’s foreign intelligence agency, Pawel Szota, as well as other Western intelligence officials said Russian spies were to blame for the plot.
"I’m not sure the political leaders of Russia are aware of the consequences if one of these packages exploded, causing a mass casualty event," Szota said.
The devices, which ignited at the DHL warehouses, were nearly transferred onto DHL airplanes, according to people familiar with the matter. German officials who tested replicas found that standard firefighting systems on planes would have struggled to extinguish the fires, the Journal reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there has not yet been "any official accusations" of Russian involvement.
The report comes amid what European authorities describe as a widening Russian sabotage campaign against the West, including "arson in the U.K. and the Czech Republic, attacks on pipelines and data cables in the Baltic and tampering with water supplies in Sweden and Finland," according to the Journal.
Richard Moore, head of the United Kingdom’s foreign intelligence service MI6, said Russian spy agencies have "gone a bit feral in some of their behavior." Ken McCallum, head of the United Kingdom’s domestic spy agency MI5, warned last month that Russia has been orchestrating "arson, sabotage, and more dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness."