A train and some railway infrastructure were set on fire in August in Latvia by two people acting in Russia’s interests, Latvia’s State Security Service said Wednesday, the latest in a series of warnings by Western officials who say Russia is attacking critical infrastructure across Europe.
The security service said the two people set fire to the train and some railway relay cabinets — boxes that contain equipment to control train movements — and also filmed the attack. The video material was later sent to the people who commissioned the arson who used it for propaganda purposes to claim the fires were in Ukraine, the service said.
The arson in August is one of аt least 151 incidents of sabotage and malign activity across Europe tracked by The Associated Press and linked to Russia by Western officials since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Officials say a goal of the attacks is to undermine support for Ukraine, spread fear and discord in European societies and drain investigative resources. Russia often uses proxies for such attacks and some perpetrators say they have no idea they have been hired by Moscow.
In November, Polish officials said Russia’s intelligence services were behind several incidents of sabotage on a rail line used to deliver aid to Ukraine.
In January, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said two combined heat and power plants supplying heat to almost half a million customers, as well as multiple wind and solar farms, were attacked by hackers “directly linked to the Russian services.”
In December, Danish officials said cyberattacks carried out by Russia in 2024 on a water utility left some houses without water while in August, Norwegian police said pro-Russian hackers remotely opened a valve in a dam allowing water to pour out.
The cyberattacks demonstrate the vulnerability of European critical infrastructure and are part of a concerning trend which suggests Moscow is adopting a “more aggressive posture,” towards European countries it views as adversaries said Ciaran Martin, former head of the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre.
Part of that involves “cyber-kinetic” activity where hackers linked to Russia change variables in a system to have a physical impact – such as altering water flows, Martin told AP.
Italian officials are also investigating the sabotage of multiple high-speed railway lines on the first day of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February. The ANSA news agency said infrastructure was burned or cut, impacting thousands of passengers. Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said cyberattacks originating from Russia also targeted the Winter Olympics including websites linked to the Games, hotels in Cortina and foreign ministry sites.
High-speed railway lines in France were also sabotaged in 2024 on the opening day of the summer Olympic Games. Neither Italy nor France has officially attributed the rail sabotage. The Kremlin has previously told the AP it denies any involvement with a sabotage campaign.
