The arson attack on the IKEA store in Vilnius in May 2024 was organized by Russian military intelligence, namely the Main Directorate of the General Staff GRU. This conclusion was reached by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Lithuania, reports Delfi. The case of the terrorist attack was transferred to the local court. According to the investigation, for the operation GRU recruited two Ukrainian citizens under the age of 20, one of whom planted explosives in a store. The device was remotely activated at the time specified by the curator. The fire was videotaped and sent to the customer. Then the executor left for Poland, where he received a BMW 530 car as a reward. According to the prosecutor’s office, a few days later he returned to Lithuania to get equipment for a new terrorist attack, this time in Riga, but was eventually caught by the police, who found components of an explosive device.
The attacker turned out to be a minor. He is in custody in Lithuania. The second suspect was detained in Poland. The case is being investigated jointly by the countries. The prosecutor’s office of the Baltic republic believes that both defendants were part of an organized criminal group created in advance by the GRU, whose goal was to commit terrorist acts in Lithuania and Latvia aimed at intimidating the population, destabilizing the situation and exerting pressure to stop supporting Ukraine.
