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Lithuania accuses Russia of fire at Ikea store in Vilnius last year, 2 arrested
2025-03-17 21:38:19 / BOTA
Lithuanian prosecutors say Russia's GRU military intelligence service was behind an arson attack on an Ikea furniture store in the Baltic state's capital, Vilnius, last year.
Two Ukrainian suspects have been arrested – one in Lithuania and the other in Poland – over the attack, which prosecutor Arturas Urbelis called "an act of terrorism."
He said that the investigations of the intermediaries had proven that "this is connected to military intelligence, to the security services."
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Lithuania had "confirmed our suspicions that Russian secret services were responsible for setting fires in shopping malls in Vilnius and Warsaw."
"Better to know before negotiations. Such is the nature of this country," he wrote in a post on X.
Russia has denied repeated accusations by NATO countries that its secret services are involved in sabotage operations across Europe.
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Russia was blamed for a series of package fires targeting courier companies in Europe last July.
Security experts see it as a systematic campaign of “hybrid warfare” to undermine European support for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion that began in February 2022.
The arson attack in Vilnius last May caused no casualties, but that month a similar attack destroyed a major shopping mall in the Polish capital Warsaw.
Prosecutor Urbelis said the two suspects – both teenagers – had held a secret meeting in Warsaw and agreed to set fire to shops in Lithuania and Latvia for a reward of 10,000 euros ($11,000; £8,400) and a BMW.
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