Poland charges Ukrainian citizen with involvement in parcel bomb

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WARSAW (Reuters) -Polish prosecutors have charged a Ukrainian citizen with involvement in sending a parcel bomb using a courier company, Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) said on Monday.

An indictment was filed with the District Court in the central Polish town of Piotrkow Trybunalski against a Ukrainian citizen called Kristina S., the ABW said in a statement

It said that Kristina S. was being charged under an article of the penal code relating to causing damage through arson or explosions. This section of the penal code does not cover collaboration with foreign intelligence services.

It said the package was discovered in a courier company’s warehouse in the nearby city of Lodz. The statement provided no details on a possible motive.

European authorities have been on high alert for explosive packages since a series of explosions in courier depots in Britain, Germany and near the Polish capital Warsaw in July 2024. Western officials have blamed those incidents on Russia.

European officials have, in recent years, blamed Moscow for acts of sabotage such as arson. Moscow denies such accusations.

The ABW statement said that “in July 2024, the accused participated in the shipment of a parcel transported by a courier company, containing explosives,” an initiating device and electric detonators, among other items.

“This structure constituted a so-called shaped charge bomb.”

The ABW said that Kristina S. committed the alleged offence along with another Ukrainian citizen and two Russian citizens.

Two people were being detained in connection with the case, prosecutors said in a separate statement.

The parcel and its explosives could “have caused significant damage to critical infrastructure,” prosecutors said, citing a chemical expert opinion obtained from the internal security agency.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Anna Koper, Marek Strzelecki; Editing by Bernadette Baum)