Russians are buying real estate near military facilities in European countries. The Telegraph writes about this, UNN reports.
Details
The publication, citing British intelligence data, notes that Russian spies have turned real estate across Western Europe into a network of "Trojan horses" designed to unleash a coordinated sabotage campaign.
Using weak legal frameworks, clandestine Russian units are suspected of acquiring sensitive properties near military and civilian facilities in at least a dozen European countries. With the intention of escalating their "hybrid war" in the West, Russian intelligence services have allegedly acquired summer houses, holiday cottages, warehouses, abandoned schools, city apartments, and even entire islands with the intention of using them as staging grounds for coordinated surveillance, sabotage, and covert attacks.
It is stated that current and former officers of three European intelligence services said that Russia may already have explosives, drones, weapons, and undercover agents at some facilities, "ready for activation in a crisis situation."
"The number of sabotage acts linked to Moscow – from arsons in London and Warsaw to bomb parcels, assassination plots, and attempts to derail trains – has increased since Russia's invasion of Ukraine four years ago. Some in the Western intelligence community fear that these incidents may be 'test runs,'" the authors summarize.
Context
European diplomacy chief Kaja Kallas, speaking on February 15 at the Munich Security Conference, stated that the war began in Ukraine, but the Kremlin's strategic ambitions are not limited to Donbas or even Ukrainian territory in general.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Russia's wars, including the war against Ukraine, are a consequence of the indifference of leading world powers. He emphasized that history punishes those who remain on the sidelines.