Vladimir Putin is plotting a desperate ploy, according to Lithuanian intelligence.
Security forces in the Baltic nation say that the Kremlin is cooking up a plan to use captured Ukrainian drones to stage provocative incidents across several European nations.
Several mysterious incidents have occurred in countries supporting Ukraine in its defense against Russia since the war began in 2022, including one on Wednesday when a drone reported to be carrying explosives was found at an airport in Leipzig, Germany.
“We are talking about a false flag operation, using a false Ukrainian drone... One of the goals is for NATO to waver and decrease support to Ukraine. I can assure this will not happen,” said Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas.
“Lithuanian intelligence is working. We are collecting information and seeing it,” he told reporters in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.
Officials from all three Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—and Poland have said that Putin is planning to carry out sabotage attacks against their countries in the hope that doing so will reduce support for Ukraine and draw attention away from the conflict, Reuters reports. All four countries are staunch supporters of Ukraine and are NATO members, and would enjoy the protection of Article 5, which is the commitment to shared defense.
The attacks would target infrastructure, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said. Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the claims as “scare stories.”
Germany has launched a counter-terror probe following the incident in Leipzig on Wednesday.
A DHL plane was taking off from Leipzig/Halle Airport when it collided with an unidentified object and was forced to make an emergency landing in Hannover.
Authorities say they found a drone nearby, close to where several Ukrainian Antonov Airlines cargo planes are based. Saxony police have since confirmed that the drone was carrying explosives.
Several drones have been spotted in Germany over the summer, with interior minister Alexander Dobrindt saying Wednesday’s incident represents a “new level of threat.”
“All of this does not point to an amateurish approach. We are talking about a professional, hybrid threat scenario that we will continue to address.”
Since 2022, there have been incidents across Europe that have affected, among other things, rail, energy and logistics hubs, with several arson attacks also suspected to be connected to Russian interference.
Speaking to Welt TV after the Leipzig incident, Oleksii Makeiev, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, asked, “Who else could it be?” according to the BBC.
It comes after Kyiv has flipped much of the war’s pressure back onto Moscow, with a sustained blitz on key Russian energy and logistics hubs.
Drones have poured over Ukraine’s eastern border and into Russia, where they have struck oil refineries, sparking a major energy crisis in the country, thought to be the worst since the fall of the Soviet Union.
It has conjured a new image of the war, with huge lines at Russian gas stations and towering plumes of smoke rising from sprawling warehouses, overshadowing towns and cities.
