Tyrant Vladimir Putin has been accused of planning terrorist attacks on international airlines as part of a global wave of sabotage.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk claimed that Russia had carried out what he called “air terrorism” against airlines in Poland and other countries.
6
6
6
During a news conference in Warsaw alongside Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky, Tusk said: “I will not go into details, I can only confirm the validity of the fears that Russia was preparing acts of aerial terrorism, not only against Poland but against airlines around the world.
“These acts of sabotage are versions of war that Russia declared it to the whole world, not just Ukraine.”
A series of air disasters in Europe has recently been linked to the Kremlin by several Western intelligence officials.
Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence services of being behind a plot to place incendiary devices in packages aboard cargo planes bound for North America.
Learn more about the Russia-Ukraine War
This includes one that caught fire at a mail center in Germany and another which ignited in a warehouse in England last year.
In November, a DHL cargo plane from Leipzig crashed into a house just a kilometer before its planned landing on the runway at Vilnius airport.
The accident killed one person.
Shocking footage shows the burning wreckage of the DHL cargo plane as emergency crews race to put out the blaze.
In July, Russia was suspected of planting a bomb in a package aboard a plane bound for Britain.
The package then caught fire while in a DHL warehouse in Birmingham, with the fire brought under control by local fire services.
These incidents have reignited fears of covert Russian sabotage operations against the West.
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum has warned that Russia is on a mission to “sow chaos” on the streets of the UK.
The Kremlin has rejected previous Western claims that Russia sponsored acts of sabotage and attacks in Europe.
Late last year, Azerbaijan accused Russia of unintentionally shooting down an Azerbaijani airliner that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, killing 38 people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a tragic incident following the crash, but stopped short of acknowledging that Moscow was responsible.
The Polish government has declared that Russia is carrying out acts of hybrid warfare against Poland and other Western countries in retaliation for their support for Ukraine.
Last year, Poland’s foreign minister ordered the closure of one of three Russian consulates in the country in response to acts of sabotage, including arson that he said was sponsored by Moscow.
Putin’s previous “air attacks”
VLADIMIR Putin and Russia have been accused of being behind several deadly air incidents in recent months.
In December, an Azerbaijan Airlines jetliner was shot down by a Russian missile.
Vlad was forced to issue a rare “sorry” for the crash that killed 38 people during a phone call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
But despite his apologies, Vlad continued to avoid taking responsibility for the Christmas Day disaster – content to simply regret that it happened in his airspace.
He called the crash a “tragic incident” but acknowledged that Russian air defenses were active when the plane approached.
The 72-year-old insisted his troops were fending off Ukrainian drones attacking Russia’s Chechnya region.
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 is believed to have been hit by an air defense missile as it landed in the Russian city of Grozny after taking off from Baku in Azerbaijan.
At first, Russia tried to attribute the accident to a “bird strike”.
Putin’s forces were also accused of jamming the plane’s systems and denying the stricken plane permission to make an emergency landing in Russia.
In 2014, a Russian-made missile horrifically downed Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine.
All 283 passengers and 15 crew members on the Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flight were killed when Russian-backed forces launched the attack from an occupied part of Ukraine.
Shocking images showed debris strewn across the Russian-controlled area.
The deaths include ten Britons, 193 Dutch, 38 Australians and 43 Malaysians. Eighty victims were children.
6
6
6
