Russia behind recent bomb threats at Czech, Slovak schools, Czech intelligence chief says

Michal Koudelka, the director of the Czech Security Information Service, said on Nov. 18 that Russia was behind a flurry of bomb threats made against schools in Czechia and Slovakia in recent months.

Intelligence agencies across Europe have warned that Russia is plotting violent acts of sabotage across the continent in response to countries' support for Ukraine.

Hundreds of Czech and Slovak schools received bomb threats sent over email after students returned from their summer break in September, leading to multiple school closures, local media reported.

Following the threat, local police found no credible evidence of explosives or improvised devices surrounding the schools.

"There is a clearly visible Russian trace" concerning the bomb threat, Koudelka told Czech parliamentarians during a briefing on the threats posed by Russian cyberattacks to the country's national security.

Russia has long engaged in a variety of disruptive behavior toward Europe, also using its cyber capabilities to target civilian infrastructure. Prague has regularly been targeted by Russia through cyberattacks beginning in 2023.

At a conference in Prague on Oct. 9, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said that Moscow is responsible for 80% of all the foreign influence operations in the world.

Ahead of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Czechia authorities expelled 18 Russian diplomats in response to deadly 2014 warehouse blast that Russia was reportedly responsible for.

Various media outlets reported on Nov. 18 that several Telecom cables linking two Nordic countries with Germany and Lithuania were cut at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, raising suspicion of Russian sabotage.

South Korea has not participated in Czech shell initiative for Ukraine, official says

South Korea did not provide artillery shells of its own production, nor did it make financial contributions to the purchase of shells from other countries under the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine from third countries.

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova

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