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Germany’s foreign minister said on Monday that the fatal crash of a cargo plane near the Lithuanian capital’s airport could have been an accident or a “hybrid incident” with external involvement.

“We now have to seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or whether it was another hybrid incident,” Annalena Baerbock told reporters at a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Italy, alluding to officials’ recent cutting of telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea said it could have been sabotage.

“We have seen several hybrid attacks in Europe recently, often targeting individuals and infrastructure, whether underwater or on fixed infrastructure,” she said.

The term “hybrid” is often used to describe attacks that do not use conventional military tactics, such as sabotaging infrastructure or conducting cyberattacks.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European countries have frequently used the term to describe actions against them that they say emanate from Moscow.

So far, Lithuanian authorities have not linked Monday’s crash, which killed a crew member of the DHL cargo plane, to recent suspected cases of sabotage.

According to police and DHL, the plane, which arrived from the German city of Leipzig, crashed about a kilometer (0.6 miles) from Vilnius airport, hitting several buildings while skidding several hundred meters.

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