Russia Suspected of Plotting to Send Incendiary Devices on U.S.-Bound Planes
Two devices that ignited in Europe, officials say, were part of a covert operation to put them on cargo or passenger aircraft
By
Bojan Pancevski
Updated Nov. 4, 2024 4:59 pm ET
A pallet of packages on fire
Western security officials say they believe that two incendiary devices, shipped via DHL, were part of a covert Russian operation that ultimately aimed to start fires aboard cargo or passenger aircraft flying to the U.S. and Canada, as Moscow steps up a sabotage campaign against Washington and its allies.
The devices ignited at DHL logistics hubs in July, one in Leipzig, Germany, and another in Birmingham, England. The explosions set off a multinational race to find the culprits.
Now investigators and spy agencies in Europe have figured out how the devices—electric massagers implanted with a magnesium-based flammable substance—were made and concluded that they were part of a wider Russian plot, according to security officials and people familiar with the probe.
Security officials say the electric massagers, sent to the U.K. from Lithuania, appear to have been a test run to figure out how to get such incendiary devices aboard planes bound for North America.
Lithuanian police arrested a suspect who sent four incendiary devices, including two from a DHL shop in the capital Vilnius, a European law-enforcement official said. The suspect identified himself as Igor Prudnikov, but his real name is Alexander Suranovas, the official said. Investigators said they believe he was used as a proxy by Russian spy services.
Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office said authorities there have arrested four people in connection with the fires and charged them with participating in sabotage or terrorist operations on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency. Poland is working with other countries to find at least two more suspects.
A photo from a European law-enforcement official shows a suspect at a DHL shop in Vilnius, Lithuania.
“The group’s goal was also to test the transfer channel for such parcels, which were ultimately to be sent to the United States of America and Canada,” the prosecutor’s office said, without saying who was orchestrating the group’s efforts.
But the head of Poland’s foreign-intelligence agency, Pawel Szota, said Russian spies were to blame and such an attack, if carried out, would have represented a major escalation in Moscow’s campaign against the West. “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.
Szota’s comments echo what other Western intelligence officials said, indicating that Russia, and specifically its military-intelligence agency, known as the GRU, was responsible.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked for comment by The Wall Street Journal, said: “We have never heard any official accusations” of Russian involvement, adding: “These are traditional unsubstantiated insinuations from the media.”
European authorities allege that Russia is behind an expanding campaign of sabotage, 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.
The devices that ignited were electric massagers implanted with a magnesium-based flammable substance, officials said.
Earlier this year, the U.S. warned Germany that Russia planned to kill the chief executive of Rheinmetall, the German armaments giant that supplies Ukraine.
In the months after the fires at the DHL logistics hubs, the heads of both U.K. intelligence agencies called out Russia’s sabotage operations. In September, Richard Moore, the head of MI6, the U.K.’s foreign-intelligence service, said that the Russian spy agencies had “gone a bit feral in some of their behavior.”
A month later, Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, the U.K.’s domestic spy agency, warned that Russia was orchestrating “arson, sabotage and more. Dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness.”
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Downing commercial passenger or cargo planes would be a big step up and some Western intelligence agencies have questioned whether such a plot could be the result of Russian spies carrying out a plan without the full authorization of the Kremlin, according to people familiar with the matter.
A Central Intelligence Agency spokesperson in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The incendiary devices that ignited in July only narrowly missed being on aircraft used by DHL, the people said. German police who tested replicas of the incendiary devices said that once magnesium ignited it would be difficult to extinguish with the firefighting systems most planes have, people familiar with the German investigation said, and pilots would have been forced to make an emergency landing.
An aircraft far from land and over an ocean would have been at risk of going down, the people said.
Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, warned that Russia was orchestrating ‘arson, sabotage and more dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness.’ Photo: Yui Mok/Associated Press
Germany-based DHL uses cargo and passenger airplanes to transport packages. A spokeswoman for the company said the incendiary devices that ignited in July were carried in cargo planes and said the company was cooperating with authorities.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration declined to comment on the alleged plot. The agency said it has worked with U.S. and foreign air carriers to put additional safety measures in place on air-cargo shipments as part of continuing efforts to improve security.
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Poland hasn’t named the four people arrested in connection with the incendiary devices, nor has it disclosed their nationalities.
The U.K. is investigating the device that caught fire in Birmingham and is working with other law enforcement authorities in Europe, a spokesperson for the country’s counterterrorism police said. No arrests have been made.
The head of Germany’s internal security agency, Thomas Haldenwang, told the country’s legislators that no one was harmed because a flight was delayed, describing it as a “lucky coincidence.” An airplane could have gone down in flames, he said.
Karolina Jeznach in Warsaw contributed to this article.
Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com, Thomas Grove at thomas.grove@wsj.com, Max Colchester at Max.Colchester@wsj.com and Daniel Michaels at Dan.Michaels@wsj.com
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According to people familiar with the matter, U.S. and European intelligence officials believe Russia is planning to send incendiary devices to the U.S. on commercial cargo flights. Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said there is “no doubt that Russian clients are behind” attempts to place explosives on planes headed to Europe and the United Kingdom. German security officials said a cargo plane fire in Leipzig, Germany was caused by an incendiary device that was “probably planted by Russia.”
