Bulgaria is examining the cause of an overnight fire at a private defence company’s ammunition storage facility.
Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said authorities are not ruling out external interference in the incident in central Bulgaria, and no one was injured in the blaze that caused a series of explosions.
EMCO, whose weapons are employed by Ukraine in its fight against Russian forces, stated that the fire was an act of sabotage and that human error has been completely excluded; the company did not identify a potential perpetrator.
This incident follows a similar fire and explosion at another EMCO ammunition warehouse in the region last month.
In a statement, EMCO noted that the storage facility burned this time—located near the central village of Gorni Varpishta, about 170 km (106 miles) east of Sofia—had been unused for months and had been inspected just 20 days prior, confirming full regulatory compliance.
It referred to several similar incidents at Bulgarian defence firms since 2011, asserting that the latest event is part of a broader series of sabotage against the Bulgarian defence industry.
“Given that Bulgaria, an EU and NATO member state most severely impacted by these actions, must join a collective effort to prevent and neutralise such attacks,” EMCO said.
The company is owned by Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, whom prosecutors allege has previously been targeted by Russian agents.
These actions include a 2015 poisoning attempt on Gebrev, his son, and another company employee, for which three Russian nationals were later charged in absentia with attempted murder.
Bulgaria is a significant supplier of weapons to Ukraine, supporting its defence against the full‑scale Russian invasion that began in 2022.
Although Sofia has recently halted state‑owned arms deliveries to Ukraine, private Bulgarian defence firms continue to make such transfers.
Russia appears to have intensified its sabotage campaign across Europe.
Last week, Germany asserted that Russia was behind August’s drone attack at Leipzig’s airport—a claim Moscow dismissed as absurd.
Numerous suspicious fires have also broken out at defence facilities across Europe, from Italy to Estonia, with several of those countries attributing them to Russia.
