But in the course of my reporting, I spoke to a Lithuanian national-security official who said, “One IKEA burning is something very minor, no more than a tactical signal.” Which means that it’s not going to turn the tide of the actual war with Ukraine, or what Russia sees as its larger struggle with the West. I was struck by something I heard from an official of the security services in Poland, which is one of the countries at the epicenter of these kinds of attacks. And if Ukrainian people are caught carrying out these actions, you manage to discredit the image of Ukrainians in the eyes of, say, the Polish or the Lithuanian people, in the countries that have taken refugees in.
Author: Ian Crouch
Published at: 2026-02-03 23:00:00
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