UK counterterror police probe whether Russia planted parcel bomb

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The UK’s counterterrorism police are investigating the origins of a package that caught fire at a DHL depot in Birmingham in July, amid heightened fears that Russian agents are intent on causing “mayhem” on Britain’s streets.

The incendiary device, which caught alight at a DHL depot at Midpoint Way in the Minworth suburb of Birmingham, caused no significant damage or injuries, London’s Metropolitan police said on Wednesday. The fire was dealt with by staff and the local fire brigade at the time, it added.

A similar incident happened in Germany in July, when a parcel destined for an aircraft’s hold burst into flames at a DHL logistics centre in Leipzig before the flight.

Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service, said this week that there had been a dramatic increase in “aggressive behaviour” by Russian agents, and that the explosion would have resulted in a crash if it had gone off during a flight.

The Met, which is taking the lead in the UK investigation, did not specify whether Russian involvement was suspected in the Birmingham incident.

“On Monday, 22 July, a package at the location caught alight. It was dealt with by staff and the local fire brigade at the time and there were no reports of any injuries or significant damage caused,” the Met said on Wednesday.

It added: “The investigation remains ongoing and there have been no arrests in our investigation at this time. As part of our enquiries, officers are liaising with other European law enforcement partners to identify whether this may or may not be connected to any other similar-type incidents across Europe.”

DHL said: “We are aware of two recent incidents involving shipments in our network. We are fully co-operating with the relevant authorities to protect our people, our network and our customers’ shipments.”

It added it was bringing in “strengthened security measures across the European countries as a reaction to ongoing investigations by authorities from several countries”.

The investigation was first reported by The Guardian.  

Western security officials have increasingly warned that the Kremlin has stepped up “special operations” across Europe as part of its attempts to deter western support for Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Ken McCallum, head of British domestic intelligence agency MI5, warned that Russia’s GRU military unit was on a “sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets: we’ve seen arson, sabotage and more”. 

Recent incidents, some of them carried out by proxies hired from the criminal world, include an alleged Russian-backed arson attack on a Ukrainian-linked warehouse in the UK, a sabotage plot against US military bases in Germany, attempts to disrupt Europe’s railway signal networks, the jamming of GPS civil aviation navigation systems in the Baltics, and the killing in Spain in February of a Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine.

Russia is also believed to have been behind a foiled plot to assassinate Armin Papperger, chief executive of Rheinmetall, Europe’s largest ammunition manufacturer, which was uncovered by US intelligence agencies. 

Russian sabotage was top of the agenda at a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Prague in May. Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said that “virtually every ally” raised the issue of the “Kremlin . . . intensifying its hybrid attacks against frontline states, Nato members, setting fire and sabotaging supply warehouses, disregarding sea borders and demarcations in the Baltics, mounting more and more cyber attacks, [and] continuing to spread disinformation”.