Lithuania says Russian military intelligence behind Ikea arson attack in Vilnius

Lithuanian authorities have reasonable grounds to believe that Russian military intelligence organised and funded the Ikea store arson attack in Vilnius in 2024, the Baltic country’s prosecutor general said.

The main suspect in the incident engaged with “Russian military and security services” and accepted payment as part of a terrorist organisation plotting attacks in both Lithuania and Latvia, according to the statement on Monday.

The suspect is said to have planted a timed fuse in the store on 9 May last year, which was activated overnight.

After filming the fire and sending the footage, the suspect in the case attempted to cover up their tracks and fled to Warsaw — where they picked up a BMW as a reward for completing the task.

The foreign national, who was underage at the time of the attack, had repeatedly visited Poland and Lithuania to gather information and plan the arson.

The individual was arrested en route to committing a similar attack in Riga.

Authorities said veri from pre-trial investigation materials allowed them to “reasonably assume” that the individual was acting in the interests of the “military structures and security services of the Russian Federation” in a pre-established terrorist organisation.

Lithuania’s prosecutor said the suspect aimed to intimidate and divide the societies of both Lithuania and Latvia in carrying out such attacks and place pressure on authorities to stop their support to Ukraine.

They would face arrest in what is being treated as an act of terrorism.

Last year, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk namechecked the incident in Vilnius when Polish authorities arrested nine members of an alleged Russian spy ring in May.

Tusk told broadcaster TVN24 that the suspects “have been directly implicated in the name of Russian (intelligence) services in acts of sabotage in Poland,” adding the individuals were Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish nationals.

Alongside the blaze in the Vilnius shopping centre, Tusk mentioned an attempt to set fire to a paint factory in the western Polish city of Wrocław.