Over the past two years, shopping centers, warehouses, underwater cables, and railways in Europe have been attacked in what the Center for Strategic and International Studies calls an effort to sow chaos under the direction of Russian military intelligence GRU. The New York Times told the story of a 17-year-old Ukrainian refugee who became part of a group preparing sabotage in Europe and is now accused of arson at an IKEA store.
“We have already entered a war zone in Europe,” said Darius Jauniškis, former director of the Lithuanian State Security Department. “Their goal is to create chaos, sow distrust and panic, and undermine public support for aid to Ukraine.”
Daniil Bardadim, who grew up in Kherson in southern Ukraine but fled the war, was offered a job that promised a BMW car and about $11,000 in cash. The attack Bardadim is accused of took place last May: at night, an incendiary device ignited in an IKEA store in Vilnius. The teenager was detained on charges of sabotage when he was leaving Lithuania on a bus to neighboring Latvia. Among his belongings on the bus were incendiary devices that investigators believe were to be used in an arson in Riga. Later, police found a bag with explosives, six mobile phones, and detonators that he stored in a locker at the Vilnius station.
Lithuanian investigators believe that Bardadim and other participants in the IKEA attack were mainly motivated by money. According to the Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office, “there is no information indicating that the accused holds pro-Russian views.” They may have “not understood the ultimate goal” of those who, hiding behind pseudonyms on social networks, ordered and directed their work. The people recruited by the GRU are “clearly not professionals” as they are easily caught, often in difficult financial situations, and attracted by “offers of quick and easy money.”
According to Lithuanian investigation data, instructions were sent to Bardadim and other recruits via Telegram by a user with the nickname Warrior2Alpha. Another communication channel was the Chinese messaging app Zengi.
According to prosecutors, Bardadim crossed the northern border of Poland with Lithuania in April last year. He scouted possible targets, visiting an IKEA store in the eastern city of Šiauliai and a second, larger IKEA store in Vilnius. Notably, Šiauliai, where a NATO airbase is located, has long been a target of interest for Russian intelligence services. Last year, Lithuanian police arrested an 82-year-old pensioner on charges of espionage, finding spy equipment in his home. He was accused of working for Russian intelligence services.
On May 8, Bardadim planted an incendiary device in the bedding department of the IKEA store. Set on a timer, it exploded early in the morning of May 9. According to prosecutors, Bardadim had accomplices in Lithuania, including a fellow Ukrainian who was later arrested in Poland.
Three days later in Warsaw, a fire that Polish investigators now believe was caused by Russian-hired saboteurs destroyed the city's largest shopping center. Poland believes Bardadim may have been involved in this as well.
Last month, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that Lithuania's extensive investigation into the IKEA attack “confirmed our suspicions that those responsible for the arson of shopping centers in Vilnius and Warsaw are employees of Russian intelligence services.”
The director of the Lithuanian State Security Department, Darius Jauniškis, stated that the sabotage in IKEA “was not just the arson of mattresses,” but part of a broader campaign to “create panic.” “We are talking about sabotage, but in reality, it is state-supported terrorism,” Jauniškis is convinced.