“Moscow raises rates – a sabotage war in Europe acquires more threatening and diverse manifestations. European intelligence agencies note that sabotage is aimed not only at the facilities related to the support of the Armed Forces. Most often they are intended to cause chaos and excite the population. In addition, in many cases, among the deiversary of mercenaries, they feature natives of Ukraine. It shows more”, – WRITE ON: ua.news
Moscow raises rates – a sabotage war in Europe acquires more threatening and diverse manifestations. European intelligence agencies note that sabotage is aimed not only at the facilities related to the support of the Armed Forces. Most often they are intended to cause chaos and excite the population.
In addition, in many cases Among the detainees for sabotage mercenaries, are natives of Ukraine. This shows another purpose of the Russian special services – to discredit Ukrainians in states that are allies in the war with the aggressor.
One of the striking examples is the arson of real estate of British Prime Minister Kira Starmer, one of the European leaders who are in the “decisive coalition”. Two people from Ukraine were detained in the case.
UA.News talks about resonant sabotages that associate with Ukrainian citizens and publishes clarification Alexander Kovalenko, a military-political observer “Information Resistance” group “Information Resistance” About why Ukrainian refugees agree to cooperation with the Russian Federation against the European countries in which she was reflected.
Resonant diversions in Europe with the participation of Ukrainians
Great Britain. In May 2025 in London They were detained Two citizens of Ukraine involved in a number of arson of property related to the Prime Minister of Great Britain Kir Star.
One of the fires happened in the private home of the older in Kentysh-Town, in the north of London, in his constituency. No one was injured, but the entrance to the house was damaged. The old man lived there with his wife and two children before he moved to the official residence on Down Street after he became Prime Minister in July 2024.
The fires were entrusted to the Fires to fight the terrorism of the London police. The suspects were detained in two stages. On May 16, the Westminster Magistrate Court made a decision on 21-year-old Roman Lavrynovych, who was charged with the ransom of two real estate and car in northern London. Police have charged Lavrynovich “on three points in arson with the intention of causing life.”
Lavrynovich did not say anything at the hearing, except that he confirmed his name, date of birth and address. He spoke through the translator. No other details about the suspect were made public.
A few days later, May 20, the British Prosecutor’s Office put forward prosecution In the arson of Prime Minister Kira Starmer, a 26-year-old Romanian citizen, Stanislav Karpyuk, who was born in Ukraine. The suspect was detained at Luton Airport when he tried to leave Romania.
Germany and Switzerland. In May 2025 three Ukrainians Arrested On suspicion of preparing explosive parcels, which were to be sent from Germany to Ukraine. According to the investigation, they acted under the guidance of Russian agents and planned attacks on logistics objects.
One of the suspects sent to Cologne at the end of March, two “test packages” containing GPS trackers to identify possible vehicles.
German prosecutors did not disclose the details of the case that was in the parcels and where they were sent. Herbert Royle, the chief security officer of the North Rhine-Westphalia land, described the suspects: “The first impression – lower -level agents – people who … recruit for little money, and then do work for the Russian state.”
Lithuania. In May 2024, a fire in IKEA was recognized as a terrorist attack organized by Russian special services in Vilnius. In the case They appeared Two Ukrainians, one of whom was a minor at the time of the crime.
Before closing the shopping center, two guys were laid in the warehouse with an explosive device with a timer. Losses due to a fire were estimated at more than 485 thousand euros.
According to law enforcement officers, in the spring of 2024, during a secret meeting in Warsaw, they agreed to arrange arson and explosions in Lithuania and Latvia shopping centers for 10,000 euros.
Poland. In 2024 Arrested 18 people on suspicion of espionage and preparing sabotage in favor of Russia. Among them were citizens of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine.
The recruited mercenaries were found in several stages. In particular, in February, the Polish Internal Special Service of ABW detained a Ukrainian who was allegedly preparing for the arson of buildings in Wroclaw near strategic infrastructure. In May, 9 more people were arrested because of suspicions of custom diversions.
Another episode concerned the Ukrainian and Belarus, who appeared before the court for participating in the Russian Spy Network, which prepared sabotage acts on a railway in Poland in 2023 and monitored railway routes that were sent to Ukraine and humanitarian aid. Men also confessed that they monitored the safety of the ports of the Baltic Sea of Gdansk and Gdynia.
In general, the Polish intelligence services have detained saboteurs for almost six months. The Interior Minister stated that diversions were part of the plan that envisaged cyberattacks, the organization of migrant flows in Belarus to cross the border with Poland and other measures that threaten Poland’s security as an important ally of Ukraine.
“We have no doubt that people who are ready to threaten the life, health and property of Polish citizens,” at the request of a foreign state, Said Tomasz Semonyak.
The reaction of European government officials to Russian diversions
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom reacted On the arson of his house in London, which became known on May 12. Answering questions in parliament, he stated that it “Attack on all of us, on the democracy and the values we protect.”
The incidents were also condemned by the leaders of the House of Commons, including Kami Badenok from the Conservative Party, who called them “absolutely unacceptable.”
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda In May 2024 called Citizens to maintain vigilance regarding sabotage acts in the current political circumstances. “Unfortunately, we have information that such sabotage acts can be repeated. When our opponents, our enemies (…) will try to destabilize our domestic political situation we have to do our best to prevent them from doing so, ” – said Nausead Public Radio LRT.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tuskafter detention of a group of saboteurs in 2024, called their actions “Exceptional betrayal” and stated that Russia organizes attacks h Erese of mercenaries among Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish citizens.
After the proven facts of sabotage and sabotage, in May 2025, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorsky, statedthat intends to close the Consulate of the Russian Federation in Krakow.
Whom and as recruitment
Because most GUR officers can no longer go to Europe, the former operatives, dialing through Telegram, are performed by the field. Instead of focusing on specific purposes related to war in Ukraine, the approach is much wider, aimed at shopping malls, warehouses and other civilian infrastructure, says in his own Investigation The Guardian.
“The strategic goal is to sow discord and uncertainty. They do not destroy significant infrastructure. They focus on vulnerable purposes that affect the overall perception of uncertainty in society. This is a classic psychological operation ”, – explained the former head of the Polish Foreign Intelligence Service Piotr Kravchik.
Diversion is directly carried out by people who are recruited online and often pay for cryptocurrency. Some know what they do and why, others do not understand that they eventually work for Moscow.
The ways in which Moscow recruits agents and selects goals differ in different countries. In the Baltic countries, Russian services use mostly family ties of local Russian -speaking population. They recruit agents during visits to Russia, and Telegram is then used to communicate, not to establish initial contact. Motivated usually either money or blackmail.
“It is not a question of ideology, but business and relatives within Russia. When we look at people, their overall understanding of the world is not reduced to something more than survival, ” – explained Harris Puusepp, Head of the Bureau of the Internal Security Agency of Estonia.
In other places of Europe, people are recruited through Telegram, without any personal interaction. Some first think that they communicate with like-minded friends about a joint business project. Others may think that they work to order extreme political movements or individual figures.
The peculiarity of recruitment of Ukrainians is an expert clarification
In most cases, the basis for the interaction of Ukrainians with Russian special services is their pro -Russian ideology, explains Oleksandr Kovalenko, military-political observer of the group “Information Resistance”.
“The fact is that many Ukrainians who had pro -Russian views have fled to Europe since 2022. And this is the foundation, the basis for the formation of Russian special services of agent networks. They did it before. They have been working on this since the Soviet Union. Therefore, the fact that there are persons with passports of Ukraine in the territory of the European Union, but at the same time their outlook is fully corresponded to the “Russian measure” is a common phenomenon.
Many refugees who escaped, relatively speaking, from the war, from Zhytomyr or even from Uzhgorod, Kiev, Odessa, which was not under occupation, and other cities from which the line of warming was in tens and hundreds of kilometers, they sometimes correspond to Russian views. They look, for example, the Russian “New Year’s Light”, listen to Kobzon, Gazmanov, Baskova and others, as well as signed on Utubi for some Russian bloggers. This is the center for Russian special services in Europe, who recruit these citizens, more precisely pseudo-citizens of Ukraine. ”
Oleksandr Kovalenko claims that this problem has existed and will exist not only for external society, but also for Ukraine itself. Since there are also many such agents of influence and Zhduns within the country, which are waiting for Russia to come to their region, city or village and will destroy everything there. And this phenomenon persists, both internally and outside.
“Russian intelligence services are information through social networks, through personal contacts continue to work with these representatives. And through them or generate the information component: “Like, I – A refugee from Ukraine, who relates through YouTube, Twitter or other social networks, who denies the opinion of the Ukrainian authorities, but which for some reason coincides with the narratives of Russian propaganda. But this is solely coincident. ”
They also work out. Not only physical diversions, that is, terrorist attacks. But, accordingly, they work out the information component of such “Kremlin heads” with a passport of Ukraine. And they are perceived as refugees, who are running away from war. Or, as they begin to position it, “flee from the arbitrariness of the Kiev authorities”, repeating the narratives of Russian propaganda. “
In this context, according to Oleksandr Kovalenko, it can be argued about an extensive system of information influence, as well as the preparation of physical diversions in the territory of European countries.
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