Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump pushing for ceasefire announcement after call with Putin on Tuesday

Lithuanian prosecutors accused Russia’s military intelligence on Monday of orchestrating an arson attack on an Ikea store in Vilnius in May, and suggested it may have been targeted because the chain’s logo uses the same colours as Ukraine’s flag.

The fire broke out in the store in Lithuania’s capital three days before a shopping centre in neighbouring Poland was hit by a blaze that authorities there said they suspected may have been part of a growing Russian sabotage campaign.

Russia denies carrying out sabotage attacks and says the West is stoking anti-Russian feeling by blaming Moscow for every incident. Russia’s GRU military intelligence service could not be immediately contacted for comment on Monday.

Investigations had found that the IKEA fire was linked to Russian military intelligence through a chain of more than 20 intermediaries, Arturas Urbelis, from the Lithuanian prosecutor general’s office, said.

“The chain includes the organisers, then more organisers for certain goals, then more intermediaries, all down to the perpetrators. It is a multi-stage, very complex system,” Urbelis told reporters.

The store was not chosen randomly, he added. IKEA had halted operations in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine and “IKEA’s colours are the same as Ukraine’s flag – this has strong symbolic meaning,” Urbelis said. Ukraine’s flag and IKEA’s logo are blue and yellow.

The Swedish furniture giant said it appreciated the work investigators had done but did not want to comment further as the matter was before a court.

The fire, which was triggered by a timed detonator in the early hours of May 9, was quickly contained, Urbelis said.

Two Ukrainian citizens, one under 20, one under 18 at the time, were offered 10,000 euros and a used BMW vehicle for their efforts, and took numerous trips to Vilnius from Poland to scout and prepare, he added.

One of them was detained afterwards in Lithuania, the other in Poland and both will face trial in those countries, he added.

A senior adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed Russia is willing to wipe out its population for the sake of victory in Ukraine.

Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on X that the foundations of Russia’s success on the battlefield are “the corpses of their own soldiers”. He described their policy of using waves of infantry to soak up gunfire in close combat as the use of “semi-slaves”.

“If the aggressor is rewarded with Ukrainian territories for this bloodbath, it will inevitably encourage future wars. Without a doubt,” he wrote.

“But it will also reinforce the Kremlin’s belief in the effectiveness of wave assaults using semi-slaves—even in this century.

“The almost inevitable future aggression against Europe will wipe out what remains of the empire’s demographic potential. The beast devours everything around it—and itself.”

A “significant number” of countries are willing to provide peackeeping troops in Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday.

More than 30 countries are expected to be involved in the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ to support Ukraine, the spokesperson said.

“The contribution capabilities will vary, but this will be a significant force, with a significant number of countries providing troops,” the spokesperson told reporters.