Poland said the mysterious parcel fire was a ‘test run’ aimed at cargo flights to the US

Polish prosecutors say a series of parcel fires targeting courier companies in Poland, Germany and Britain were aimed at sabotaging flights to the US and Canada.

Katarzyna Calow-Jaszewska revealed late last month that four people had been arrested and that authorities across Europe were investigating the case.

On three days in July, a fire broke out in a container due to be loaded onto a DHL cargo plane in the German city of Leipzig.

A fire broke out at a transport company near Warsaw and there was a similar fire at Minworth near Birmingham, UK, involving a package described as an incendiary device.

British officials have given few details about the Minworth fire.

However, Ken McCallum, head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5, said last month that Russian agents had carried out “arson, sabotage and other more dangerous acts carried out with reckless abandon.” increasing” after Britain helped Ukraine in its war with Russia.

The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV) said it was only thanks to luck that the Leipzig device did not catch fire in mid-air.

Ms Calow-Jaszewska said in a statement that a foreign intelligence sabotage group was involved in sending parcels containing explosives and dangerous materials through courier companies. The parcels then spontaneously caught fire or exploded.

Western officials are now believed to have linked the arson attacks to an operation orchestrated by Russia’s GRU foreign military intelligence agency. They believe the fire started from electric massage machines containing “magnesium-based” substances.

Magnesium fires are difficult to extinguish, especially on aircraft. According to Polish reports, the incident in Jablonow near Warsaw took two hours to be extinguished.

“The group’s objective was also to check the remittance channel for such parcels, which would eventually be sent to the United States and Canada,” the prosecutor said.

Russia denies being behind the acts of sabotage.

But it is suspected of being behind attacks on warehouses and rail networks in EU member states this year, including in Sweden and the Czech Republic.

German BfV head Thomas Haldenwang described the device that caught fire at the DHL logistics center at Leipzig-Halle airport as suspected Russian sabotage.

The package is believed to have come from Lithuania and its onward flight has been delayed.

The device that caught fire at Minworth is also believed to have come from Lithuania, where the head of parliament’s defense and security committee, Arvydas Pocius, said it was part of an ongoing joint attack campaign aimed at ” causing chaos, panic and distrust.”

DHL has increased security since the recent cargo fire. “DHL Express has taken measures in all European countries to protect its network, employees and facilities as well as customer shipments,” a spokesman said a few weeks ago.

The Polish government responded to Russia’s sabotage, with Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announcing the closure of the Russian consulate in Poznan and threatening to expel the Russian ambassador if the country did not end the attacks.

The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the move as “a hostile step that will meet with a painful reaction”.