Russian arrested in Bosnia, at the center of a sabotage investigation that extends to several European countries

A year and a half after being extradited from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russian citizen Aleksandr Bezrukavyi began speaking before a court in Warsaw about his role in the case of shipments of incendiary devices, which Polish prosecutors link to acting on behalf of Russian intelligence.

Among the incidents covered by the wider investigation is a fire that broke out in July 2024 at a DHL cargo centre at Leipzig Halle airport in Germany, when a shipment containing a hidden incendiary device spontaneously combusted shortly before being loaded onto a plane bound for the United Kingdom.

According to the indictment, Bezrukavyi was part of a network of individuals and is accused of preparing test shipments to the United States and Canada.

The case attracted new attention after German authorities launched an investigation into a new security incident at the same airport in early August 2026, where a drone with an explosive device was found near the runway.

While details about the new incident from Leipzig are not yet known, separate proceedings are underway in courts in Poland and Lithuania against individuals whom investigators link to sabotage operations carried out in the summer of 2024.

Five defendants appear in court in Warsaw

In early January 2026, the Polish prosecutor's office filed an indictment against five individuals, Russian citizen Aleksandr Bezrukavy and Ukrainian citizens Vyacheslav Chabanenko, Vladislav B., Vladislav D. and Serhiy Y., for their alleged role in an operation related to the sending of shipments containing incendiary devices.

According to the lawsuit, which Radio Free Europe (RFE) obtained anonymously from the Warsaw Court, Bezrukavyi was part of a group specifically responsible for preparing test shipments to the US and Canada.

These shipments would be used to control routes, transport times and the functioning of the logistics chain.

So far, five hearings have been held in the case, and Bezrukavji has been in custody since his extradition from BiH, which was extended until November 11, 2026.

According to the prosecution, tasks were divided in such a way that individual members of the group had no complete information about the entire operation.

Prosecutors allege that one of the defendants organized the sending of four shipments from Lithuania in July 2024, two of which were destined for the United Kingdom and two for Poland.

The shipments contained massage cushions, cosmetic products, and sex toys that contained flammable mechanisms and flammable chemical substances.

One of the shipments caught fire on July 20, 2024, at the DHL cargo center at Leipzig Halle Airport in Germany, shortly before it was loaded onto a plane bound for the United Kingdom.

The second was engulfed in flames two days later at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham, while the third caused a fire in a truck trailer in Poland.

The defendants face sentences ranging from several years in prison to life imprisonment, depending on the role they are accused of playing in the suspected operation.

Joint investigation by several European countries

According to Eurojust, the investigation, which covered Germany, Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, identified a total of 22 suspects in Lithuania and Poland who are suspected of acting in the interests of Russian military intelligence.

A joint European investigation showed that the suspects were recruited via online platforms, that tasks were divided between multiple individuals, and that payments for completed tasks were often made in cryptocurrencies.

European investigators say the suspects included citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and that many of them were in difficult social or economic situations.

How did Bezrukavji end up in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

In November 2024, a Russian citizen was arrested in the town of Bosanska Krupa in northwestern Bosnia with forged Spanish documents.

These were the first news in the media about Aleksandr Bezrukavy.

Initial information shared by local police indicated that he could be linked to Russian groups that were training Moldovan citizens to cause unrest in Bosnia and Serbia, given that these activities had been reported previously, but this later turned out to be false.

Bezrukavji first entered Bosnia and Herzegovina in February 2024, most likely from Turkey, it was later reported. He then illegally crossed into Croatia and then visited several European Union countries over the course of several months, possibly with new documents, with which he was later found in Bosanska Krupa.

He was found by the Bosnian Intelligence Service in Bosanska Krupa on November 15, the day after he arrived illegally from Croatia. Together with local police, he was arrested in the evening hours at a private apartment he had rented.

He was also found to have an invalid and expired Russian passport.

Until his extradition to Poland, which had issued an INTERPOL arrest warrant for him, he was in the State Prison in East Sarajevo.

During several hearings held at the Court of BiH, in late 2024 and early 2025, he denied having anything to do with what Poland suspects.

While awaiting the decision of the Court and the BiH Ministry of Justice to send the Russian to Poland, Russia also requested his extradition to that country, charging him with alleged crimes related to illegal possession of weapons, narcotics, and suspicion of committing theft.

He stated at the hearing that he wanted to be extradited to Russia through short procedures, but this did not happen.

During the extradition proceedings in BiH, the Russian Embassy in BiH was also involved in this case, and his lawyer claimed that if he were extradited to Poland, he would not have a fair trial in that country.

Poland sent a plane to pick him up and deport him from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Poland on February 13, 2025.

Details from the trials in Poland and Lithuania

Although the Polish indictment was filed in early January, Bezrukavyi only began presenting his defense before the court in Warsaw this week. He denies knowing what the shipments mentioned in the indictment were intended for.

During the hearing, he also spoke about communication with the person behind the Telegram account “VWarrior,” which appears several times in the indictment as a channel through which certain defendants received instructions for carrying out tasks related to deliveries.

The Polish prosecution claims that the network acted according to predetermined roles.

While some were responsible for transporting and storing materials, others received, packaged, and transported shipments or provided logistical support.

According to the indictment, one of the defendants traveled from Warsaw to Kaunas, Lithuania, in mid-July 2024, where he took bags of massage cushions, cosmetic products and other items from a vehicle.

Prosecutors allege that thermite devices to cause fires were hidden in massage cushions, while cosmetic packages contained a mixture of nitromethane, nitrocellulose and titanium oxide.

The shipments were then transported to Vilnius where they were activated, repackaged and sent to Poland and the United Kingdom. According to the indictment, two shipments were destined for Warsaw, one for London and one for Birmingham.

The aftermath followed a few days later. On July 20, 2024, a shipment caught fire at the DHL cargo center at Leipzig Halle Airport in Germany, shortly before it was to be loaded onto a plane that would continue its flight to the United Kingdom.

Another involved a fire at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham, while a third caused a fire in a truck trailer in Poland.

In a separate trial taking place in Lithuania, a DHL representative stated in early August that the plane in Leipzig avoided a fire during the flight only because it was late.

According to his testimony, the incendiary device was activated just a few minutes after the scheduled departure time. The witness said that the container that burned in Leipzig contained up to 140 loads.

Unlike the other defendants, Bezrukavyi is not accused of sending packages that were set on fire in Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland.

The prosecution alleges that his role was to prepare the next phase of the operation, which included testing shipments to the United States and Canada.

According to the indictment, he provided two pairs of shoes and six T-shirts, which he delivered to one of the accused Ukrainian nationals with instructions to send them to addresses in the United States and Canada.

On August 1, 2024, acting on Bezrukavya's orders, the second defendant, according to the prosecution, sent two packages by courier to the USA and Canada, so that the sent shipments could test the secure transmission channel, that is, the period and route of sending the courier service's shipments, as well as the time of delivery to the specified addresses.

The information obtained would then be used to send shipments containing explosive and flammable materials by airmail, which is a terrorist act with the intent to endanger a large number of people, the indictment states.

Radio Free Europe attempted to contact the Russian defendant's defense attorney, but there was no response.

According to court reports, one of the defendants, Ukrainian citizen Vyacheslav Chabanenko, claimed he did not know that the items he was taking over and transporting contained incendiary devices.

During questioning, he stated that he acted on the instructions of the people he communicated with via Telegram and that he did not know what was inside the package.

Chabanenko also claimed that Bezrukavyi did not know what was in the items used to send test shipments to the US and Canada, the Novaya Gazeta portal reported.

The Polish prosecution rejects such claims and states that the defendants acted as part of a pre-organized network aimed at carrying out sabotage activities against logistical and air infrastructure.

Leipzig again, two years later?

While trials for previous cases are continuing in Lithuania and Poland, Leipzig Airport is once again in the spotlight after "two very serious incidents" that temporarily suspended and diverted flights.

The Leipzig police department said an "unidentified flying object" was spotted near the airport late on August 4, leading to the diversion of several aircraft, including a passenger plane, to other airports.

A drone carrying a "suspicious object" was also discovered near one of the two main runways.

The Dresden public prosecutor's office and the Saxony State Criminal Police Office, which are leading the investigation, said the drone discovered on the runway was carrying an "unknown explosive device."

Although German authorities have not yet linked the latest incident to the 2024 shipment, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said that Germany is a daily target of hybrid attacks from abroad that include espionage, sabotage and other covert operations.

Following the events in Leipzig, German media reported that the government was considering further strengthening its drone defense system.

Similar measures have been taken by Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, especially when it comes to energy and other critical infrastructure due to fears of potential hybrid operations and sabotage.

Security services in those countries are warning of the possibility of so-called "false flag" attacks, in which drone strikes could be carried out in such a way that responsibility is attributed to Ukraine, Reuters reported in an analysis following the incident at Leipzig airport.