Among those charged with attacking a company that sells equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces are Spaniards and Colombians, in addition to a Russian and a Belarusian.
14ymedio, Madrid, 16 January 2025 — Two Cubans were charged with terrorism in Lithuania on Friday for participating, among other things, in activities against the company providing military support to Ukraine, following instructions from Russian intelligence. The case also involves a Spanish citizen, a Spanish-Colombian citizen, a Belarusian citizen and a Russian citizen, all of whom are in preventive detention, but there are also three other Cuban suspects who are currently being sought.
The Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s Office and Criminal Police Bureau sent the findings of more than a year of investigation to the court on Friday and held a press conference to explain the details of the case. According to the investigation, the target of the activity was TVC Solutions, a company located in Siauliai, in the north of the country.
The defendants unsuccessfully attempted to set fire to the facility twice, where radio equipment intended for the Ukrainian Armed Forces was stored. The ringleaders of the plot are believed to be a Colombian and a Cuban residing in Russia. “The evidence gathered in Lithuania provides reasonable grounds to suspect that the acts of sabotage attempted in Siauliai were carried out on the orders of the GRU (Russian military intelligence) and for its benefit,” the Prosecutor’s Office said.
The ringleaders of the plot are believed to have been a Colombian and a Cuban residing in Russia.
The events took place in September 2024, when an arson attack was reported at one of the company’s depot stations. The prosecutor then warned that the incident had no business motive and was not linked to organised crime groups.
On that day, the Spanish and Colombian nationals travelled to the company with incendiary material, but were spotted by passers-by, which thwarted their plan. They then fled to Riga, the capital of Latvia, where they were arrested and extradited. This attempt was followed by another on 22 September. On this occasion, a Russian and a Belarusian, both residents of Spain, travelled to Siauliai and managed to start a small fire, but left before checking whether they had achieved their objective: the fire did not affect the company’s equipment.
On 23 September, a Cuban woman living in Russia went to check on the effects of the attack and was arrested by the authorities. An intermediary – a Colombian living in Spain – with financial responsibilities was also identified, arrested and transferred to Lithuania in May 2025.
Four more suspects must be added to this list, one of whom has been arrested in Colombia and whose extradition is underway. The other three are two 35-year-old Cubans – one of whom also has Russian nationality – and a Spanish-Cuban woman born in 1965. The Lithuanian authorities, in coordination with other European countries, suspect that the same group has attempted to commit similar acts in the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania.
The investigation maintains that the objective was “to intimidate society, disrupt and hinder support for Ukraine in its defence against the Russian invasion, and encourage fear and mistrust within Western societies”. The underlying motivation, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, was entirely economic.
The underlying motivation was, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, entirely economic.
Saulius Briginas, deputy chief of police, said that during the preparation stage, some of those involved were sent to Lithuania to gather data on the company, its facilities, schedules and any other information that would facilitate the crime. “During the next stage, two people arrived in Lithuania. One of them is a Spanish citizen, the other has Spanish and Colombian nationality, with the task of setting fire to the aforementioned radio wave spectrum analysis stations,” he added. That was the first failed attempt.
The Lithuanian press has identified most of the accused by their initials, including the alleged Cuban ringleader, Y.L.C., but there is no information on the other Cuban citizens involved. The European police cooperation agency (Europol) and judicial cooperation agency (Eurojust) are working to arrest the rest.
Translated by GH
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