'Shadow war on West' shown by spies' bomb plot

RUSSIAN spies carried out “test runs” to blow up cargo planes as part of an “escalating shadow war against the West”, a shocking report has revealed.

- By Michael Knowles HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR

Moscow’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, planted electric massage machines laced with a “magnesium-based flammable substance” on aircraft in July 2024, the highly respected International Institute for Strategic Studies said.

These parcels - which exploded in DHL warehouses in Birmingham, Leipzig in Germany and near Warsaw in Poland - are believed to have been “test runs for potential future attacks against cargo aircraft”, researchers said.

And an apparent “lull” in sabotage plots across Europe in the first half of this year, following a sharp increase in 2024, could be down to Putin’s spies “regrouping their networks” and “recalibrating” their tactics - or the Kremlin being wary of “alienating a more conciliatory US administration”.