Lithuania's blaming Russia for arson confirms suspicions on Warsaw fire - Tusk
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said the allegations made by Lithuanian officials, which implicate the Russian military intelligence agency GRU in the arson of an IKEA store in Vilnius, align with Poland's suspicions over a fire set to a market hall in Warsaw.
Arturas Urbelis from Lithuania's General Prosecutor's Office said on Monday that "we perceive the fire in the Vilnius IKEA store as a terrorist attack and are sending the case to court," adding that Russia stands behind the incident.
Later that day, Tusk addressed these allegations in a post on the X platform.
"Dear allies, the investigation of the Lithuanian prosecutor’s office has confirmed our suspicions that responsible for setting fires to shopping centres in Vilnius and Warsaw are the Russian secret services," he wrote.
"Good to know before negotiations. Such is the nature of this state," Tusk added, referring to the Ukraine ceasefire discussions between the US and Russia scheduled for Tuesday.
The Vilnius arson attack, which took place in May, was conducted by two Ukrainian citizens aged under 20. One of them is in detention in Poland.
The organisers, Urbelis said, are linked to the GRU and Russian security forces. Moscow has denied any involvement in the arsons.
Polish authorities also blame the GRU for an arson attack in Warsaw, which took place three days earlier.
The Polish capital saw around 80 percent of a vast market hall catch fire.
At that time, Western media blamed Russia's GRU for the attacks, saying they intended to undermine foreign support for Ukraine. (PAP)
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