The German Foreign Minister said on Monday that the crash in Lithuania of a cargo plane leaving from Germany could be “ an accident or hybrid incident » linked to external intervention.
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“ We must ask ourselves […] seriously if it was an accident or, like last week, again a hybrid incident “, said Annalena Baerbock, on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in Italy, referring to the recent rupture of two telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea for which sabotage is not excluded. “ Recently, we have had hybrid attacks on several occasions in Europe […] on individual people, underwater infrastructure or on earth », continued the head of German diplomacy, during a press point in Fiuggi, near Rome.
So-called hybrid actions aim to harm a country’s political institutions, undermine its security or influence public opinion by non-military means, such as sabotage or computer attacks. Since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, several European officials believe that Russia is leading a “ hybrid warfare » against Western countries allied with kyiv with the aim of destabilizing them.
In the investigation into the DHL plane, the “ German and Lithuanian authorities are already working hard in all directions to elucidate the incident said Ms. Baerbock. The reasons for the crash Monday morning of the cargo plane linking Germany and Lithuania near Vilnius airport, which left one person dead – a Spanish member of the crew – are not known at this stage.
The Lithuanian authorities do not exclude the possibility of a “ terrorist act “. Two telecommunications cables were cut last week in the Baltic Sea, between Finland and Germany on the one hand, and between the Swedish island of Gotland and Lithuania on the other.
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