Russia is already at war with the West—a shadow war, below the threshold of open military conflict. In accordance with Sun Tzu’s teachings, it weakens the enemy before deciding on aggression. The Kremlin considers this a priority, as evidenced by the strengthening and expanded powers of a special GRU unit that has been carrying out destabilizing operations in Europe for years—ranging from bombings and sabotage to disinformation.
When presenting the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service (VLA) report on February 12, its chief, Kaupo Rosin, stated that Europe should be prepared for more “acts of arson, vandalism, and destruction” aimed at undermining Western support for Ukraine. A few days later, Latvian state security (the State Security Service – SAB) issued the same warning. Russian intelligence services are developing the capacity for increasingly large acts of sabotage in Europe. This is part of Moscow’s preparation for a possible long-term military confrontation with NATO, according to the report. These are just some of the many alarming signals that have appeared over the last year in Europe.
Indeed, the past year has been the busiest in terms of Russian intelligence activity on the continent—not so much in the realm of espionage as in subversion and sabotage. Fires in Poland and Finland, a series of train accidents in Sweden and the Czech Republic, an explosion at a BAE Systems ammunition factory in Wales, a fire at the Berlin factory of arms manufacturer Diehl—these examples represent only a fraction of the Russian intelligence operations. The escalation of hybrid warfare—in its physical dimension—in 2024 is no accident. One year earlier, Russia established a special intelligence unit tasked with destabilizing Europe.
A Secret Unit in the Aquarium
Based on discussions with Western officials involved in intelligence matters, and corroborated through Russian sources, The Wall Street Journal has determined that the campaign against the West, involving special measures, is led by a unit named the Special Tasks Department (abbreviated DOP from the Russian name). This department operates out of the main headquarters of the GRU—the infamous Aquarium. The DOP was formed in 2023 in response to Western support for Ukraine, gathering veterans of numerous secret GRU operations from recent years: from paying the Taliban to kill Americans, to attacks involving Novichok. The Special Tasks Department was formed out of the notorious Unit 29155 but also absorbed part of the FSB’s responsibilities. According to Western intelligence officials cited by WSJ, the DOP has three main objectives:
- Conducting assassinations and sabotage abroad;
- Infiltrating Western companies and universities, and engaging in recruitment;
- Training foreign agents (primarily in Ukraine and in countries viewed as friendly to Russia).
The DOP seeks agents via job-ad forums, among pro-Russian activists and radicals—both right-wing and left-wing. It also recruits criminals from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, and Serbia through officials in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Sometimes these agents hold EU passports.
A Forge for Saboteur
The Special Tasks Department also oversees the GRU and special forces training center in the Moscow region, the renowned Special Operations Center “Senezh.” Saboteurs destined for Europe train there. One of them is Major Yuri Sizov, who led operations to set fire to supermarkets and shopping centers in Ukraine and Poland (including the high-profile Marywilska 44 blaze in Warsaw) from May to July of last year.
The DOP has been behind numerous recent attacks on the West, including the failed assassination attempt on the CEO of the German defense giant Rheinmetall and the operation to plant incendiary devices on DHL planes in the UK and Germany. Although the device did not ignite in flight, on July 22 it caused a fire at a DHL warehouse on the outskirts of Birmingham. Had it gone off mid-flight, the results could have been catastrophic. A similar incident occurred in Germany at the end of July, when a suspicious package intended for air transport ignited at a DHL facility in Leipzig.
Meanwhile, last summer in Finland, there were a series of break-ins at water infrastructure facilities, including water towers and distribution points. At the end of August, sabotage damaged machinery used for drilling in the Per Geijer area near Kiruna in northern Sweden, where, in January 2023, Europe’s largest rare earth mineral deposits were found. In May of last year, the head of Norway’s PST counterintelligence agency, Inger Haugland, announced that Russians were planning acts of sabotage in western Norway—home to Haakonsvern, the largest naval base in Northern Europe, as well as key oil, gas, and power infrastructure.
According to WSJ, the top priority for the Special Tasks Department is Germany, regarded by those in the “Aquarium” as the West’s weak link. In 2024, at least two operations in Germany were made public. In April, two individuals holding both Russian and German citizenship were arrested in Bayreuth. One of them had previously taken part in military operations in the Donbas region and maintained contacts with Russian intelligence. They planned attacks with explosives and the arson of military and defense-industry facilities, gathering information on potential targets, including American bases. On June 20, another three individuals were arrested in Frankfurt am Main while collecting information on a Ukrainian citizen in Germany who had fought against the Russian army. It can be inferred this was intended to facilitate an assassination.
The “Orchestra” Officer and His Unit
In essence, the Special Tasks Department is a continuation of Unit 29155, only with even broader powers and capabilities. Its chief and his deputy remain the same two officers who have played pivotal roles in the intelligence war against the West for years. General Andrei Averyanov is a veteran of the Chechen wars and the Crimean operation. In 2008, he was ordered to create, from scratch, a GRU unit dedicated to “wet work” abroad. Unit 29155 began its operations a year later. Averyanov was recently tasked with taking over the Wagner Group’s assets in Africa and establishing a mercenary “African Corps.” Reportedly, his superiors have not been satisfied with his performance in this role, causing his standing to drop in the race to succeed current GRU chief Admiral Igor Kostyukov, whose dismissal is said to be decided but not yet announced.
Averyanov’s deputy at the DOP is General Ivan Kasyanenko, whom investigative reporters recently identified in connection with a GRU operation in Afghanistan. It was revealed that the Russians had paid the Taliban to kill Americans, as well as coalition and government soldiers. Western intelligence officials assert that Kasyanenko also played a key role in the operation to poison Sergei Skripal and was involved in actions taken after the killing of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
As noted, Averyanov and Kasyanenko were the primary officers behind Unit 29155, in operation since 2009. Its existence was disclosed by The New York Times in the fall of 2019. That elite group was linked to the assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal (2018) and the explosion of an ammunition depot in Vrbetice in the Czech Republic (2014). Later, investigative work by The Insider and Bellingcat confirmed the same GRU unit had been sabotaging NATO and EU targets earlier—during the era of the so-called “reset” in relations. Its agents blew up an ammunition depot in Lovnidol, 150 kilometers east of Sofia, in November 2011. That artillery ammunition was bound for Georgia. The attack is the first known armed sabotage by Russia against a NATO and EU member state, as well as the first known terrorist attack carried out by this same group of killers and saboteurs who later attempted to murder Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, UK; Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev in Sofia; and who blew up or set fire to numerous important warehouses and buildings on NATO territory.
Unit 29155 also undertook far more serious operations. In 2016, it planned a coup in Montenegro; in 2017, it engaged in destabilizing Catalonia at the time of the region’s so-called independence referendum in Spain.