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| Europe | |
| Germany 'foils Russian plot to bomb transport network in sabotage attacks' as European spy ring is dismantled | |
| 2025-05-15 | |
| [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] German police have foiled an apparent Russian sabotage attack on Europe's transport networks, with four people charged with involvement in a plot to send out parcel bombs. Three Ukrainian citizens, named as Vladyslav T, 24, his partner Lolita K, and Daniil B, 21, were arrested in Germany in connection with the operation and had their communication devices and computer storage devices seized for investigation. A fourth individual named Yevhen B., who is believed to be the 'handler' who issued the orders to the Germany-based cohort, was detained in the Swiss canton of Thurgau and is due to appear before a judge after being transferred to Germany. German and Swiss authorities suspect all four of being spies operating on behalf of Russia, with their alleged plan to send incendiary devices and explosives in parcel shipments reminiscent of recent sabotage attacks in Europe which the West has blamed on Moscow. The suspects are said to have already sent two test packages containing GPS trackers to determine where the explosions could cause the most damage.
It is unclear whether the Ukrainian citizens, who were arrested in Cologne and Konstanz, were even aware of who they were working for. Germany's BILD reported that investigators said the detainees were 'low-level agents' at the very bottom of the chain of command, according to investigative sources. But their dastardly plan appears to fit perfectly with the established modus operandi of Russian security services in today's age of hybrid warfare in which 'handlers' recruit foreign spies - often petty criminals, drifters or financially desperate citizens - to carry out operations in a plausibly deniable manner. According to investigators from North Rhine-Westphalia police and German security services, the alleged Russian spies had planned to send their incendiary devices via a private postal service called Nova Poshta. This delivery service, also known as Nova Post, is headquartered in Ukraine but with operations throughout Eastern and Central Europe and allows customers to send packages of up to 30 kilograms in weight - more than enough for small incendiary devices. Nova Post told MailOnline in a statement: 'We condemn any attempts to misuse our services for illegal purposes. Our company operates exclusively within the bounds of international and national law, and we have implemented safety controls to prevent any such misuse. 'All international shipments are carefully inspected by Nova Post, and those sent from Ukraine are additionally checked by Ukrainian and Polish customs authorities. We have established thorough procedures to detect and block any suspicious parcels at the processing stage.' Investigators acted after receiving a tip-off to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution about Vladislav T, and began surveilling his movements in Cologne close to the apartment he shared with Lolita K. In the course of their investigations, they also uncovered the alleged involvement of Daniil B, who was living at a refugee centre in Konstanz, and Yevhen B. in Switzerland. Their planned operation reportedly bore all the hallmarks of another attack last July, when packages sitting in depots managed by courier company DHL in Birmingham and the German city of Leipzig suddenly erupted into flames. At first glance the boxes, originating from Lithuania, contained a host of items that included sex toys, massage pillows and cosmetics. Investigators soon uncovered a more troubling layer to the saga when another package, shipped from the same Lithuanian origin point, failed to detonate and was intercepted at a Polish depot. Inside, forensic specialists discovered a crude yet effective ignition mechanism concealed within the casing of yet another erotic gadget, along with traces of an incendiary gel designed to ignite on contact with air. Polish security services arrested four people in connection with the blazes and charged them with participating in sabotage or terrorist operations on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency. Before long it emerged that they were suspected of involvement in a Russian-backed plot to distribute the explosive packages throughout Europe. It is suspected the incidents were test runs for a plot to target US-bound flights. One of the alleged couriers was revealed in a recent investigation by the Guardian as Alexander Bezrukavyi, a Russian national with a criminal record and murky ties to Eastern European smuggling networks. Bezrukavyi had vanished soon after the parcels were mailed but was eventually captured in Bosnia, where he was on the run and attempting to reach Russia using forged documents. | |
| Posted by:Skidmark |