By Andrius Sytas
VILNIUS (Reuters) – Lithuanian prosecutors accused Russia’s military intelligence on Monday of orchestrating an arson attack on an IKEA store in Vilnius in May, and suggested it may have been targeted because the chain’s logo uses the same colours as Ukraine’s flag.
The fire broke out in the store in Lithuania’s capital three days before a shopping centre in neighbouring Poland was hit by a blaze that authorities there said they suspected may have been part of a growing Russian sabotage campaign.
Russia denies carrying out sabotage attacks and says the West is stoking anti-Russian feeling by blaming Moscow for every incident. Russia’s GRU military intelligence service could not be immediately contacted for comment on Monday.
Investigations had found that the IKEA fire was linked to Russian military intelligence through a chain of more than 20 intermediaries, Arturas Urbelis, from the Lithuanian prosecutor general’s office, said.
“The chain includes the organisers, then more organisers for certain goals, then more intermediaries, all down to the perpetrators. It is a multi-stage, very complex system,” Urbelis told reporters.
The store was not chosen randomly, he added. IKEA had halted operations in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine and “IKEA’s colours are the same as Ukraine’s flag – this has strong symbolic meaning,” Urbelis said. Ukraine’s flag and IKEA’s logo are blue and yellow.
The Swedish furniture giant said it appreciated the work investigators had done but did not want to comment further as the matter was before a court.
The fire, which was triggered by a timed detonator in the early hours of May 9, was quickly contained, Urbelis said.
Two Ukrainian citizens, one under 20, one under 18 at the time, were offered 10,000 euros and a used BMW vehicle for their efforts, and took numerous trips to Vilnius from Poland to scout and prepare, he added.
One of them was detained afterwards in Lithuania, the other in Poland and both will face trial in those countries, he added.
In the early hours of May 12, a massive fire almost completely destroyed the Marywilska 44 shopping centre in Warsaw. At the time, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said investigators were looking into whether Russia was involved.
On Monday, he welcomed the Lithuanian investigation that he said on X had “confirmed our suspicions that responsible for setting fires to shopping centres in Vilnius and Warsaw are the Russian secret services”.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Additional reporting by Anna Koper in Warsaw and Helen Reid in London; Editing by Terje Solsvik, Anna Ringstrom and Andrew Heavens)
