Russia carrying out sabotage against Danish defense firms supplying Ukraine, intelligence says
Russia has begun carrying out sabotage operations against Danish defense companies supplying Ukraine after concluding that broader efforts to disrupt Western military support had failed, a Danish intelligence official said on Oct. 7.
Speaking at a homeland security conference in Copenhagen, an official from Denmark's Security and Intelligence Service (PET) said Russian operations had shifted from planning to execution in recent months.
"What we saw in the spring was a lot of planning, but very little carried out; what we saw in early summer is that they started to carry out a lot more," the official said, according to Reuters.
The official said Moscow had concluded that its earlier campaign targeting a broad range of Western interests had failed to deter NATO countries from supporting Ukraine.
Russia is now "trying to hit targets that have a direct impact on the front line. That means weapons production," the official said.
According to PET, Russia increasingly recruits untrained intermediaries through Telegram and other social media platforms, including homeless people and people with drug addictions.
Recruits are initially offered simple assignments, such as taking photographs or conducting surveillance, before being drawn into sabotage operations.
"If the first person isn't successful, they'll throw another one at the problem until they succeed," the official said.
The official did not identify specific Danish companies or provide details of individual sabotage incidents.
The Russian Embassy in Copenhagen denied the allegations, calling them unfounded.
Denmark's defense intelligence service warned in September that Russia was likely to intensify hybrid attacks against Western countries in the coming months.