Polish PM accuses Russia of planning ‘acts of terrorism’ around the world
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Donald Tusk claimed Warsaw had been involved in countering ‘acts of sabotage’, referencing incendiary parcel attacks in Poland and the UK. Russia planned to conduct “acts of terrorism in the air”, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday, by plotting a wave of fire bomb attacks that could have brought down planes mid flight around the world.
![[The DHL parcel catching fire at Birmingham airport, having already travelled on a flight.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5d03a032a3dc4e8410549b88eaf9035eabfed4cf/69_0_948_569/master/948.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Warsaw had been involved in countering “acts of sabotage” conducted by Russia, Tusk added, before he referred to incendiary parcel attacks that took place in the UK, Germany and Poland during the summer. “The latest information can confirm the validity of fears that Russia was planning acts of terrorism in the air not only against Poland,” Tusk told a news conference in Warsaw, though he did not offer more detail or explanation.
DHL parcels caught light at a warehouse in Birmingham and on the tarmac at Leipzig airport in July. Media reports said that the Lepizig parcel was about to be loaded onto a plane, while the Birmingham device travelled on a flight before causing a fire.
Two other incendiary devices were found in Poland and western leaders and intelligence officials believe the crude plot to post fire bombs by parcel was orchestrated by Russia, as a dry run for further attacks in the US. A report in the New York Times earlier this week said that senior White House officials reviewed presumably eavesdropped details of conversations amongst senior officials in Russia’s GRU military intelligence. The Russians, the paper reported, had described the incendiary devices as a test run for an attack on the US.
