Russia's GRU Uses Ordinary People as “Disposable Agents” in Parcel Arson Plot
Lithuanian and Polish prosecutors accuse ten men of planning arson attacks with cargo parcels on behalf of Russian military intelligence, the GRU. One defendant is Vasilij Kovacs, a Ukrainian living in Latvia, who denies knowingly working for intelligence.
Prosecutors in Lithuania and Poland accuse ten men of planning and carrying out arson attacks using cargo parcels in several European countries on behalf of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency. Five defendants face trial in Lithuania and five in Warsaw. All ten say they did not knowingly work for Russian intelligence and deny the terrorism charges.
One of the accused is Vasilij Kovacs, a 63-year-old Ukrainian national who has lived in Latvia for more than 30 years. Latvia's State Security Service arrested him on March 1, 2025, at a farmhouse southeast of Riga. Searches turned up phones, SIM cards, documents, a pistol with a filed-off serial number, an AK-47 bayonet and a cellphone jammer. He was later transferred to Lithuania, where he is accused of planning terrorist attacks and has been held on remand for more than a year.
How the parcel scheme worked
According to files from Lithuania's Office of the Prosecutor General, Kovacs was contacted on Telegram in June 2024 and asked to collect a package in Riga and take it to Vilnius. He says he did it unpaid, as a favor to an acquaintance. In July he made a second trip, transporting what was described as “high-quality massage pillows.” Investigators say the pillows were modified to conceal incendiary devices.
The parcels passed through several intermediaries in different countries. Two were dropped off at a DHL office in Vilnius, addressed to London and Birmingham. On July 20, 2024, one parcel caught fire at Leipzig Airport before being loaded onto a DHL cargo plane, and flames engulfed an airfreight container. Two days later a second parcel ignited in a warehouse in Birmingham. Another caught fire on July 21 inside a truck near Warsaw.
“Disposable agents”
A report by Lithuania's State Security Department says the incident matches the GRU's preferred method in recent years. Because Russian officers have found it harder to operate in Europe since the 2018 attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the GRU increasingly recruits people through intermediaries and messaging apps such as Telegram. These “low-level agents” are often motivated by money, carry out single tasks and know little about the wider operation. Anyone caught can be replaced.
The GRU did not respond to a request for comment.
