Man arrested with explosives near Paris airport was part of vast Russian sabotage campaign

The building targeted by the Russian-Ukrainian man, who was wounded on June 3 while making an explosive device in his hotel room, located near the Paris region’s Charles de Gaulle international airport, was not a strategic one. Le Monde has learned the initial results of the investigation into the man indicate that he was preparing to attack an outlet of the home improvement store chain Bricorama, located in a commercial zone north of the French capital. His planned act was, however, part of a vast sabotage campaign orchestrated in Moscow, which targeted several European countries.

In the late afternoon of June 3, a sturdily-built 26-year-old man, a Ukrainian and Russian dual national, was taken to a hospital by firefighters, after suffering burns to his upper body, face and head. He initially said that they had been caused by an accidental explosion. However, the curious conditions of the incident and the man’s suspicious profile led the emergency services to report the matter to law enforcement authorities, who quickly referred the case to France’s domestic intelligence agency, the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI).

Read more: Le Monde (France)