MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Thursday dismissed Warsaw’s accusations that Moscow had planned acts of “air terror” against global airlines, a day after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk made the claim.
Poland’s interior minister said earlier Thursday that Tusk had been referring to reports about incendiary devices sent on Western-bound planes.
Relations between Warsaw and Moscow are historically strained but have nosedived to new lows since Russia’s 2022 attack on Ukraine, with Poland becoming one of Kyiv’s main allies.
“This is nothing more than another completely unsubstantiated accusation against Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
During Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Warsaw a day earlier, Tusk said that “Russia had planned acts of air terror, and not only against Poland, but against airlines all over the world.”
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He said he “will not go into details.”
Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak told state radio that Tusk had referred to “placing explosives in packages that were sent by courier companies, also by air”.
“There was no doubt that such actions were carried out at the behest of the Russian services,” Siemoniak said, adding that Polish and other Western services managed to foil the alleged plot.
Poland – the only NATO member to share a border with both Russia and Ukraine – has accused Russia of sabotage on Polish soil throughout Moscow’s offensive.
Poland was also among several countries to accuse Russia of sabotage on air travel infrastructure, including fires in packages meant for cargo planes, late last year.
US media in November cited Western security officials as saying they believed that the fires – some of which targeted cargo transported by the global DHL company – were part of a Russian sabotage plot.
Canada in November accused Russia of “cyber incidents” over the alleged plot, which Western countries said involved civilian airlines.
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