Newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria received bomb threats by email on Friday from a person claiming to be “Mikhail Andropov,” who said the messages were linked to a growing wave of hoax threats disrupting passenger flights across Europe.
The emails, sent to Bulgaria’s Nova TV and Ireland’s public broadcaster RTE, which evacuated its offices and suspended programming, carried the headline “Message to the West.” They warned that the threats were the beginning of a series of attacks targeting transport networks across Europe. British broadcaster Sky also reported receiving a security threat.
Reuters was unable to verify the sender’s identity, determine where the emails originated or establish whether they came from the same source as the threats affecting dozens of flights since Tuesday.
Nevertheless, the messages heightened concerns among European officials that the incidents form part of a campaign of “hybrid” disruption, which many have attributed to Russia and which appears aimed at countries supporting Ukraine. Moscow has denied any involvement.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Europe appeared to be confronting “hybrid aggression and a form of psychological warfare.”
No explosives were discovered, and every aircraft—including those targeted by threats on Friday—reached its destination safely.
Flight disruptions ease
Security experts said on Thursday that the threats could be intended to punish European countries that have supplied weapons or financial support to Ukraine as it resists Russia’s full-scale invasion, launched in 2022. They also cautioned that individuals could be creating false leads, copying earlier threats or acting out of personal grievances.
About six flights were disrupted in some way on Tuesday, followed by more than two dozen on Thursday. Some aircraft made unscheduled landings, while others were escorted to their destinations by fighter jets.
An Italian airport authority source said on Friday that a Wizz Air flight from Prague to Rome had been diverted to Venice. However, despite more than a dozen hoax threats, the overall impact on air travel was significantly lower.
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Hungarian fighter jets nevertheless escorted airliners traveling from Brussels to Sofia and from Prague to Bucharest and Cyprus through Hungarian airspace. Defense Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said NATO had ordered air patrols in the region, marking the first reported involvement by the Western military alliance.
Although no government has assigned responsibility for the threats, they follow a series of sabotage attacks and attempted disruptions across Europe. Targets have included German electricity substations, defense-related sites in the Baltic region and supermarket refrigerators in France and elsewhere. Germany directly blamed Russia for a drone attack on Leipzig airport.
EU commissioner says Russia is frequently behind attacks
European officials have repeatedly accused Russia of waging a campaign of “hybrid” or “grey zone” operations that are inexpensive to carry out, simple to deny and unlikely to provoke an armed response.
European technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen told Reuters on Thursday that Europe had faced a range of hybrid operations since 2022, including attacks on critical infrastructure, drone incursions, cyber breaches and interference in elections.
“We are under attack all the time,” she said. “The reason behind these operations is to destabilize our societies and create mistrust among our citizens.”
“It’s not always Russia who is behind different hybrid operations,” she said, adding: “Quite often it is Russia.”
On Thursday, an Italian airport source said bomb threats had been sent to several airlines and airport operators in Rome and Milan. The messages purported to come from “fighters of the Male State,” a far-right, anti-feminist movement banned in Russia.
Reuters could not verify who sent the email. Vladislav Pozdnyakov, the Russian blogger who founded Male State in 2016, said the group no longer existed and had no involvement in the threats.
