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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday (January 15) accused Russia of orchestrating a global terrorist campaign targeting aircraft, escalating tensions amid ongoing international scrutiny of Moscow’s actions.
“All I can say, and I will not go into details, but I can confirm the validity of these fears, is that Russia has been planning acts of air terror, and not only against Poland, but against airlines all over the world,” Tusk said during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The accusation follows a recent report by The New York Times that US intelligence had alerted the White House to a Russian plot to smuggle incendiary devices onto cargo planes bound for the United States.
According to the report, the White House issued a direct warning to the Kremlin to halt the operation.
Tusk did not provide additional details about his statement regarding Russia’s alleged plans for airline terror.
Hybrid warfare allegations
Russia has faced repeated accusations of engaging in hybrid warfare tactics against European nations, including sabotage of transport infrastructure and interference with GPS systems.
In April 2024, Czech Transport Minister Martin Kupka claimed that Moscow had carried out “thousands of attempts” to disrupt European rail networks since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the allegations as “baseless.”
Recent aviation incidents
Tusk’s remarks come in the wake of a high-profile aviation tragedy involving an Azerbaijani passenger jet that crashed in Kazakhstan last month, killing 38 people.
Russia has been accused of shooting down the aircraft, echoing the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, which killed 298 people.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized for the Azerbaijani crash, he stopped short of taking responsibility. Similarly, Moscow has never accepted blame for the MH17 disaster despite international investigations implicating Russian-backed separatists.
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