Lithuania Charges 13 in Alleged Russian GRU Assassination Plot

Lithuania’s charges against 13 people in an alleged GRU assassination plot were a stark reminder that Russia’s hybrid warfare in Europe kept moving even as Washington’s attention shifted to the Middle East. Lithuanian authorities said the case involved two attempted murders in Vilnius and fit a wider pattern of sabotage, recruitment and covert operations aimed at countries backing Ukraine.

The Prosecutor General’s Office said the investigation, opened in early 2025, led to charges against suspects from Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova and Greece. Nine suspects were in Lithuania, seven in custody and two under lighter restrictions. Extradition proceedings were underway for two more suspects, and one suspect had been detained in Greece. Police chief Saulius Briginas said the group acted in the interests of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.

The alleged targets were a Lithuanian pro-Ukraine activist and Ruslan Gabbasov, a Russian political exile and Bashkir rights activist. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said the same network also tried to kill Ukrainian journalists and an intelligence official, widening the case beyond Vilnius and into a broader regional campaign of intimidation. Lithuanian investigators said the plot was organized and coordinated by Russian nationals with ties to military intelligence services.

The case added to a growing list of suspected Russian-linked operations across Europe, including parcel bomb plots, an attempted arson at an IKEA store in Vilnius and other sabotage efforts aimed at Ukraine-bound military equipment. Lithuanian and European officials have said such operations often rely on criminal networks, encrypted messaging apps and cryptocurrency payments, making it easier to recruit disposable operatives and harder to trace who is directing them. NATO defines hybrid threats as military and non-military, covert and overt actions meant to blur the line between war and peace.

Lithuania, a NATO and European Union member that borders Russia and the Kaliningrad exclave, has repeatedly warned that sabotage and arson attempts are part of a larger campaign against European support for Ukraine. The new charges showed how vulnerable civilians can become when a covert conflict spills into city streets, apartment blocks and public spaces far from the battlefield. In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has also said nine people were arrested in a separate suspected Russian spy ring tied to beatings, arson and attempted arson across Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, underscoring how far the networked threat has spread.