Latest news with #MarekStrzelecki
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Poland intervenes as Russian 'shadow fleet' ship spotted near power cable
By Barbara Erling and Marek Strzelecki WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's military intervened after a ship from the Russian "shadow fleet" was seen performing suspicious manoeuvres near a power cable connecting Poland with Sweden, the Polish Prime Minister said on Wednesday. NATO has stepped up security in the Baltic following a string of incidents in which power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines have been damaged in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. "A Russian ship from the 'shadow fleet' covered by sanctions performed suspicious maneuvers near the power cable connecting Poland with Sweden," Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X. "After the effective intervention of our military, the ship sailed to one of the Russian ports." The term "shadow fleet" refers to vessels used by Russia to ship oil, arms and grains in violation of international sanctions imposed after the invasion. Speaking later to reporters, Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said a patrol flight scared the ship off and Polish Navy Polish Navy's ORP Heweliusz was sailing to the scene. Vice Admiral Krzysztof Jaworski, Poland's Maritime Component Commander, told Reuters that the tanker in question was called Sun and that it sailed under the Antigua flag. The Russian embassy in Warsaw did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. In the past, Moscow has denied its involvement in undersea sabotage in the Baltic, saying the West was using such claims to curb its sea-borne oil exports. The 600-megawatt undersea cable links the Swedish coast near Karlshamn with Ustka in northern Poland and allows both grids to rely on cross-border supplies when electricity is cheaper in the other system. A spokesperson for Polish grid operator PSE said the cable was working. PSE data showed over 600 megawatts were flowing to Sweden through the cable at 1130 GMT. "This shows how dangerous the times we live in are, how serious the situation in the Baltic Sea is," Kosiniak-Kamysz told a news conference. "Since Sweden and Finland joined the North Atlantic Alliance, the Baltic Sea has become a key marine area, where the largest number of incidents occur, the most common incidents related to cable breaks... and sabotage." He vowed a "firm response" from Poland and NATO to any attack on Baltic Sea infrastructure. Sweden's coast guard declined to comment. Reuters was not immediately able to reach Sweden's minister for civil defence.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sex toys and exploding cosmetics: anatomy of a 'hybrid war' on the West
By Anna Koper, Marek Strzelecki, Filipp Lebedev and Andrius Sytas WARSAW (Reuters) - Fake cosmetics, massage pillows and sex toys. Crude homemade explosives. A Russian known as Warrior. A code word: Mary. These are among the key elements of a suspected Russian-run sabotage plot that led to three parcels being detonated at courier depots in Britain, Germany and Poland last summer, a person with knowledge of the Polish investigation told Reuters. The pillows, packed into the parcels with the cosmetics and sex toys, contained hidden homemade incendiary devices made of a cocktail of chemicals including highly reactive magnesium, according to the person familiar with the case who provided the most granular account yet of the alleged plot. The chemicals were ignited by pre-timed detonators adapted from cheap Chinese electronic gadgets used to track items like lost keys, with the effect enhanced by the tubes of what looked like cosmetics but in fact contained a gel made of flammable compounds including nitromethane, according to the source. "The proceedings in this case concern criminal activities inspired by Russia's GRU," this person said, referring to Moscow's foreign military intelligence agency. Reuters is reporting the details of the investigation for the first time, drawing on the account provided by the source close to the Polish case as well as interviews with more than a dozen European security officials. The findings provide a rare insight into how sabotage campaigns play out on the ground. European security chiefs made the parcel fires public in October, describing them as part of a "hybrid war" being waged by Russia to destabilize the functioning of countries that support Ukraine, involving tactics like arson and cyberattacks. They said the parcels - which caught alight in warehouses, causing fires but not hurting anyone - were a dry run for a future Russian plot to detonate similar packages in midair on cargo flights to the United States and Canada. "With the war in Ukraine, these attacks have intensified, they became more frequent, more assertive," said Nicu Popescu, Moldova's deputy prime minister and foreign secretary until early last year and now distinguished policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank. "Of course, this poses a risk to people, to citizens across the European Union." The Kremlin rejected the accusation of Russia having a hand in the fires. "We know nothing about it," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters. "We do not rule out that this is just more fake news or a manifestation of blind Russophobia." The Kremlin said European allegations of a Russian sabotage or hybrid campaign were wholly unsubstantiated. The GRU didn't respond to a request for comment. The package detonations took place on July 19, 20 and 21 in the British city Birmingham, Leipzig in Germany and near the Polish capital Warsaw. Two EU security officials with knowledge of alleged attacks, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said the Polish cell was typical of Russian intelligence's methods. Russian handlers often recruit local criminals to carry out their plans, the officials added, giving them basic instructions via Telegram and paying each operative up to a few thousand euros per job. The ingredients and igniters detailed in the case are widely available in stores selling products like fertiliser inputs and pyrotechnics, said Jaroslaw Stelmach, a former bomb-disposal specialist who runs the Safety Project, a consultancy that advises on the security of public buildings among other things. While the small, crude devices might only be able to cause a small fire, they could be difficult to detect, he told Reuters. "This is an extremely cheap, very effective, highly anonymous method of producing explosive devices," he added. WARRIOR, MARY AND A FOURTH PARCEL The Polish prosecution case is based on testimony from at least five suspected members of the alleged sabotage cell as well as the classified findings of security services, according to the person with knowledge of the investigation. The national prosecutor's office told Reuters that investigators had also seized a fourth parcel that failed to explode at a Warsaw depot, allowing them to examine the contents intact. Polish investigators allege a Ukrainian named Vladyslav D who lived in southern Poland played a key role in the European dry run, acting on instructions he received on Telegram from a GRU handler whom he knew only as "Warrior", the source said. Polish law doesn't allow the public disclosure of the surnames of people facing criminal charges. However, the suspect's full name - Vladyslav Derkavets - was publicly disclosed in a related court case in Bosnia, where there are no identification restrictions, in which another suspected member of the alleged parcels plot faced extradition to Poland. On July 18, Vladyslav drove an Opel Astra from his home in Katowice across the border to the Lithuanian city of Kaunas where he collected more than a dozen items from the trunk of a parked car, according to the person close to the Polish prosecution case. The 27-year-old drove on to Lithuania's capital Vilnius where he boxed up four packages, each with a pillow plus a few of the cosmetics tubes and sex toys. Before sealing them, he pressed two buttons to activate pre-timed detonation mechanisms, according to the source who said the gadgets were of a type that allowed users to set trigger times from a few seconds to months ahead. On July 19, he handed the parcels over to a man in a park in Vilnius who used the code word "Mary", the person said. The packages were posted on the same day from the city, they added. Vladyslav was arrested in Poland in early August and charged with performing terrorist acts on behalf of Russian intelligence. In January, a Warsaw court extended his detention near the capital until May while the investigation continues. Reuters was unable to contact Vladyslav in detention and his court-appointed lawyer said he couldn't comment given his lack of knowledge of the details of the investigation, which is at a pre-trial stage. The national prosecutor's office told Reuters that the suspect denied both the charges levelled at him including working for a foreign intelligence agency, and provided "extensive explanations" for his actions which the office said it was unable to disclose because of investigation confidentiality. When questioned after his arrest, Vladyslav told investigators he had been introduced to Warrior by a friend and that they only communicated over Telegram, the source familiar with the investigation said. Polish prosecutors accuse another man, 44-year-old Alexander B, of being part of the same Polish cell as Vladyslav. His task, they say, involved preparing the way for targeting the North American-bound cargo planes by organising for packages of sneakers and clothes to be sent from Warsaw to Washington and Ottawa to gather information about parcel-processing methods and timing. Alexander was the suspect Polish authorities sought to extradite from Bosnia, where he was publicly named in full as Alexander Bezrukavyi, a Russian national from Rostov-on-Don. He told a hearing in Bosnian capital Sarajevo in January that he had no part or knowledge of any plot to target depots or cargo planes. Bezrukavyi lost his extradition battle and was extradited to Poland in February. Reuters was unable to contact him in detention or reach a lawyer acting for him. He has denied the charges levelled against him including working for a foreign intelligence agency, according to the person familiar with the Polish investigation.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis-Baltics brace to cut decades-old ties to Russian grid
By Andrius Sytas and Marek Strzelecki VILNIUS (Reuters) - The Baltic states are set to sever ties with Russia's power grid that date back to the 1950s, and instead integrate further with the European Union, as the suspected sabotage of subsea cables has spurred efforts to strengthen regional security. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will disconnect from the IPS/UPS joint network early on Saturday and, subject to last-minute tests, they will synchronise with the EU's grid on Sunday. Plans to decouple from Russia's grid, debated for decades, gained momentum following Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014. The three countries have spent nearly 1.6 billion euros ($1.66 billion) since 2018, largely tapping EU funds, to upgrade their grids to prepare. For Russia, the decoupling means its Kaliningrad exclave, located between Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea, will be cut off from Russia's main grid, leaving it to maintain its power system alone. Moscow has also had to spend 100 billion roubles ($1.03 billion) on preparations, including building several gas-fired power plants. "We have taken all measures to ensure the uninterrupted, reliable operation of our electricity system," the Kremlin's spokesperson said. UKRAINE INVASION The countries have long relied on their former imperial overlord Russia to control frequencies and stabilise networks to avoid outages. But in 2022, following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, the three staunch supporters of Kyiv took the first major step in switching toward the EU for power by halting purchases of electricity from Russia. Ukraine hopes to join the EU and NATO, steps the Baltics took in 2004. 'Decoupling from Russia doesn't make us vulnerable. On the contrary, it makes us safer," Lithuania's energy minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas told Reuters. 'At moments like these, threats are not decreasing. They should be expected. We are preparing for all eventualities, up to the most radical scenarios. And we have plans to manage every risk.' The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after power cable, telecom links and gas pipeline outages between the Baltics and Sweden or Finland. All were believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Estlink 2 subsea power link between Estonia and Finland was severed in December by what Finland said was an anchor of a tanker carrying Russian oil, which prompted a rise in power prices. Russia denies involvement. CRUCIAL LINKS Decoupling from Russia makes the Baltics even more reliant on the subsea links between them. "Damage to the infrastructure is the main worry. This is where the risks lie and that this is what the worst case scenario could be," ICIS analyst Stefan Konstantinov said. The Baltics' links to Russia's grid, which date back to 1956, meant Russia stabilised and supported their joint power system and that they could, if needed, purchase power from Russian coal- or gas-powered plants. That safety net is being removed. For the EU, it also means its grid will have to absorb any disturbances in the Baltics that still rely on power imports via three subsea links with Sweden and Finland as well as an overground connection to Poland. "The link between Poland and Lithuania is absolutely crucial ... we are protecting it at any price," a spokesperson for Polish grid operator PSE told Reuters. "A couple of years ago, we only worried about trees falling on power lines. After the suspicious sea cables damage, all is different." SECURITY CONCERNS The Estlink 2 incident spurred regional governments to review energy infrastructure security in the Baltics, Lithuania's Vaiciunas told Reuters. Poland and the Baltics have deployed navy assets, elite police units, patrol boats and helicopters to boost security. The Lithuanian military has begun drills to protect the overland connection to Poland. Most notably, the NATO military alliance has boosted its presence with frigates, aircraft, and naval drones. Damage to both remaining undersea cables would force Baltics to restart their outdated and expensive gas and shale oil plants that have largely sat idle for years. Analysts say that could push power prices to levels not seen since the invasion of Ukraine, when energy prices soared. Lithuanian grid operator Litgrid said all major Baltic power plants would need to be kept working if the subsea links were forced offline. That could make baseload power prices jump to 200-500 euros per megawatt hour from the current 70-100 euros, utilities and analysts have estimated. 'We will not end up without electricity, but (the subsea link disruptions) would pose certain challenges to consumers, to the industry,' Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics told Reuters. Domestically, the three countries have been busy planning for a smooth transition to the EU grid. Lithuania's energy ministry told Reuters it has drawn up contingency plans whereby some heavy energy users, such as factories, could be temporarily disconnected from the grid in the event of power shortages, to maintain essential supplies. Indicating public anxiety about the switch, sales of diesel power generators increased tenfold in Estonia in January, public broadcaster ERR reported. "Outages are very unlikely to occur, but just in case, be prepared to go without electricity for short periods", the Estonian government said. ($1 = 97.1000 roubles) ($1 = 0.9634 euros) Sign in to access your portfolio
