In July 2024, a series of packages exploded and caught fire at freight and courier company warehouses across the United Kingdom, Germany, and Poland. The parcels — later traced back to Lithuania — contained, rather improbably, both neck massagers and sex toys, as well as homemade bombs fitted with timers. Western intelligence agencies have now tied the mailings to a larger sabotage operation orchestrated from Moscow. Journalists from Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), Frontstory, VSquare, Re:Baltica, Delfi, and The Insider found that the operation was carried out a month later than planned after the courier tasked with retrieving the explosive packages got lost while navigating an apartment complex in Vilnius.

Over three days in late July 2024, three packages caught fire at DHL freight warehouses in the United Kingdom and Germany, and at a DPD courier facility in Poland. No one was injured, but intelligence services began an investigation and almost immediately suspected Russian involvement in these incidents — charges the Kremlin denies. It was later determined that the shipments contained neck massage pillows, sex toys, fake cosmetics, and homemade bombs with timers.

The first fire broke out on July 20 at DHL’s Leipzig Airport warehouse. According to German journalists, the package sent from Lithuania ignited before being loaded onto a plane that was supposed to fly to North America but was delayed. On July 21, a second package caught fire at a DPD courier company warehouse near Warsaw, while in a truck trailer. The third package ended up at a DHL warehouse near Birmingham in the United Kingdom, where it caught fire on July 22. The fourth package was intercepted by the Polish Internal Security Service. All the parcels were packed with neck massage cushions equipped with a timer, detonator, and flammable substance.

Journalists from Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Polish, and Russian outlets who conducted their own investigation found that the packages containing the improvised explosives were originally supposed to be shipped a month earlier, in late June. The plan failed, however, when the courier was unable to navigate a new residential complex in Vilnius and locate the apartment where the packages had been left for pickup.

The shipment of neck massage pillows to Vilnius was arranged by Alexander Miroshnikov, a former commander of the Soviet nuclear submarine K-387, with assistance from his Northern Fleet colleagues and former subordinates, Andrey Baburov and Nikolai Zagorodny.

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In early summer 2024, Zagorodny called Baburov, saying that Miroshnikov needed help — he was seeking someone in Riga to collect a package and pass it to his relatives in Vilnius. Baburov contacted a friend in Latvia, Vasily Kovach. Speaking to Re:Baltica, Baburov said he could not refuse “when the commander (meaning Miroshnikov) asks,” and added that there was nothing illegal in the parcel, only massagers.

Kovach picked up the package in Riga (journalists later determined it entered Latvia via the Estonian firm Omniva and was shipped from Narva by an unknown individual) and drove it to Vilnius on June 27. However, no one collected it. Kovach waited for a while, then got out of his car to charge his phone, leaving it unlocked so that Miroshnikov’s relatives could take the package while he was away. When he returned, the package was gone.

But it wasn’t Miroshnikov’s family who made the grab; it was 33-year-old Ukrainian national Vyacheslav Chebanenko, who goes by the nickname “Donut.” Journalists report that Donut served more than five years in a Ukrainian prison for raping his wife before he moved to Warsaw in 2024. He brought the parcel to an apartment on Vito Gerulaitis Street in northern Vilnius, which had been rented through Airbnb under the name Pavel Moravetsky. In that apartment, Chebanenko split the shipment into four packages, loading each with a homemade bomb. He hid detonator fuses in the neck pillows and flammable nitromethane in cosmetic tubes.

It was up to Alexander Shuranov, a Lithuanian national with his own long rap sheet, to collect the parcels. Two were bound for Poland, while the other two would be shipping to the United Kingdom. However, Shuranov was unable to find his way in the new housing complex and locate the right apartment. LRT journalists described the complex as “quite confusing” — there are no signs to guide people from the multi-level underground parking lot to the apartments in different buildings, and stairwell doors require magnetic key cards. As a result, the plan failed: Shuranov got lost, and Chebanenko had to return to the apartment and deactivate the timers in the packages.

After the failure in Vilnius, the packages were moved to a warehouse in Kaunas to make another attempt a month later. The second time, the explosives’ timers were activated in a parking lot by Vladislav Derkavets, another Ukrainian national recruited for the operation. Once again, Alexander Shuranov collected the packages. Using the name “Igor Prudnikov,” he mailed two from the DHL service center near Vilnius airport and the other two through DPD.

Shuranov, Chebanenko, and Derkavets were only operatives in the plot. The last two got their instructions from a Telegram user known as “Yarik Deppa.” According to journalists, this alias belongs to the 37-year-old Russian national Yaroslav Mikhailov, originally from Donetsk. Mikhailov was reportedly wanted in Russia for smuggling arms, explosives, and even radioactive materials. Although he was arrested in 2022, he did not serve a prison sentence, leading journalists to suspect that he was recruited by Russian intelligence. According to European officials, Mikhailov has forged Ukrainian passports for “Daniil Gromov” and “Daniil Likhin,” and even the name “Yaroslav Mikhailov” may be false.

European intelligence sources believe the operations that involved Mikhailov — including the parcel bombings — were coordinated by the GRU, Russia’s primary military intelligence arm. Journalists say Mikhailov received orders from a Telegram account overseen by a special GRU unit created in 2023 for special operations. According to The Wall Street Journal, this unit has since absorbed some of the roles formerly attributed to the FSB and the notorious Unit 29155 — the latter infamous for the poisoning of retired double agent Sergey Skripal.

On September 17, Lithuania’s Prosecutor General announced the arrest of several individuals in connection with the sabotage operation. Those detained included Vasily Kovach, who had ferried the package from Riga to Vilnius; Alexander Shuranov; and a Ukrainian man, Daniil Bardadim, who is also accused of taking part in another series of sabotage acts involving Mikhailov.

In May 2024, a fire broke out at an Ikea store in Vilnius. A few days later, a shopping center in Warsaw also caught fire. Investigators attribute both arson attacks to Daniil Bardadim, who was 17 years old at the time. He was apprehended en route to Latvia, where he planned a third attack. Sources in European law enforcement told reporters that Bardadim was carrying the same nitromethane-based explosives that had been used in the parcel bombs. He had received it from Alexander Shuranov.

Alexander Miroshnikov — the former submarine commander who retained his men’s obedience even in retirement — died of cancer in 2025. His old subordinates, Andrey Baburov and Nikolai Zagorodny, still reside in St. Petersburg. Lithuania has issued an arrest warrant for Baburov, who told reporters that he “feels guilty about what happened.” Journalists also spoke with the wife of Nikolai Zagorodny, who lost his ability to speak after a stroke. Yaroslav Mikhailov is also now wanted by the Lithuanian police. Journalists believe he is currently hiding in Azerbaijan.

Cover photo: Hendrik Schmidt / dpa / Scanpix / LETA