Lithuania’s General Prosecutor’s Office has reported that Russian military intelligence is responsible for the arson at the IKEA store in Vilnius.

The RMF24 news outlet reported on this.

Lithuanian investigation has uncovered that the individuals directly responsible for the arson were connected to Russian services through a long chain of intermediaries.

“We consider the fire at the IKEA store in Vilnius a terrorist act and are referring the case to court,” Artūras Urbėlis of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Lithuania stated.

He added that two Ukrainian citizens under the age of 20 committed the arson at the IKEA store in Vilnius on May 9, 2024. One of them was a minor at the time of the crime.

According to the Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office, one of the accused was in Poland in the spring of 2024. During a secret meeting in Warsaw, he, along with another person, agreed to set fire to shopping centers located in Lithuania and Latvia. For this, he was promised a payment of €10,000.

One of the men was detained by Polish authorities. The other was arrested a few days after the fire in Vilnius. In May 2024, the prosecutor’s office charged him with sabotage and collaborating with the Russian Federation’s intelligence services. The man remains in pre-trial detention.

Previously, the Polish prosecutor’s office arrested a saboteur suspected of carrying out arson attacks in Warsaw on behalf of Russian intelligence services. The investigation revealed that this man also acted on orders from Russian intelligence.

The prosecutor’s office has charged Belarusian citizen Stepan K. with setting fire to a large construction supermarket in Warsaw in April 2024, resulting in part of the store burning down and damages amounting to over PLN 3.5 million.

The investigation revealed that the day before the incident, on April 13, the suspect had spilled incendiary liquid in the supermarket and left a remote ignition device. On the night of April 13-14, 2024, the device went off, causing a fire.

In February 2025, it was reported that the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation formed a new structural unit in 2023 to conduct sabotage operations in Europe.

One of the most high-profile incidents was the use of incendiary devices on DHL cargo planes, as well as attempted arson attacks in European cities, including Leipzig and Warsaw.