OR German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock did not rule out that today’s crash in Lithuania of a cargo plane that left Germany could be “an accident or hybrid incident” associated with external mixing.

“We have to ask (…) seriously whether it was an accident or, like last week, again a hybrid incident,” Burbock said on the sidelines of a G7 summit in Italy.

The DHL cargo plane crashed today around 05:30 (Greece time) near Vilnius airport, resulting in to lose a person’s life – Spanish, crew member – and three others injured.

“Recently, we have had hybrid attacks in many cases in Europe (…) targeting individuals, underwater or land infrastructure,” the German foreign minister told a news conference in Fuji, a few kilometers outside Rome.

THE president of Lithuania Gitanas Nausenda visited the crash site of the cargo plane in the early afternoon, together with the ambassadors of Germany and Spain in the country. “The investigation is still ongoing and is being conducted by experts. I have no doubt that everything will be cleared up and clarified in detail,” Nausenda said.

So-called hybrid actions aim to damage a country’s political institutions, undermine its security or influence its public opinion through non-military means such as sabotage or computer attacks.

Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, numerous European officials believe that Russia is waging a “hybrid war” against Western countries allied with Kiev with the aim of destabilizing them.

In the investigation into the DHL plane, “German and Lithuanian authorities are already working hard in all directions to clarify the incident,” the German foreign minister said.

The cause of the crash of the cargo plane is not known at this stage.

Lithuania’s police chief said a terrorist attack could not be ruled out as the reason for the crash, but added that so far there were no indications of such a thing. “This is one of the versions that needs to be investigated and verified. We still have a lot of work ahead of us,” Arunda Pavlauskas said at a press conference.

DHL said from Frankfurt that the plane was making an “emergency landing” when it crashed with four people on board and that the cause was still unknown. The building, in which it crashed, had two floors and four apartments, while three families lived in it. All 12 occupants are safe, Posella said. The fire on the plane was brought under control.

Two undersea fiber optic telecommunications data cables were cut in the Baltic Sea last week, one between Finland and Germany and the other between Sweden and Lithuania. European governments then accused Russia of escalating hybrid attacks against Ukraine’s Western allies, but stopped short of directly blaming Russia for the destruction of the cables.