German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday expressed doubts about the causes of the crash of a cargo plane in Lithuania, raising the possibility of an “accident or hybrid incident”. The DHL plane, which departed from Germany, crashed near Vilnius airport on Monday morning, killing one Spanish member of the crew. At this time, the circumstances remain unclear.
“We have to seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or, like last week, again a hybrid incident,” Annalena Baerbock said on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in Fiuggi, Italy. The minister was referring to the recent suspicious ruptures of submarine telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea, for which sabotage cannot be ruled out.
Growing threats in Europe
Describing the growing threats in Europe, she recalled: “Recently, we have repeatedly had hybrid attacks […] on individual people, infrastructure underwater or on land. » These actions, she clarified, aim to destabilize political institutions, compromise security or influence public opinion, often through non-military means such as sabotage or cyberattacks.
The German and Lithuanian authorities “are already working hard in all directions to elucidate the incident,” she stressed. For their part, Lithuanian officials do not exclude the possibility of a “terrorist act”. Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, several European officials have accused Russia of waging a “hybrid war” against Western countries that support kyiv.
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