Bulgaria says fire at ammunition plant might be an act of sabotage

Bulgarian Interior Ministry is investigating the possibility of sabotage as the cause of a fire at an ammunition depot belonging to defence contractor EMKO, which supplies ammunition to Ukraine.

This incident marks the second explosion in just over a month at an EMKO site, with no injuries reported at the Gorni Varpishta location in Bulgaria.

Safety measures at all ammunition depots in Bulgaria will now be inspected following a series of incidents at defence facilities in EU member states supporting Ukraine against Russia.

The Bulgarian Interior Ministry has not ruled out sabotage as the cause of a fire at an ammunition depot in the central part of the country, it said on Saturday.

This was the second explosion in just over a month at a site belonging to the Bulgarian defence contractor EMKO, which supplies ammunition to Ukraine.

No one was injured in the incident at the Gorni Varpishta site in the early hours of Saturday morning.

"We do not rule out external interference, but if storage conditions are not adhered to (...) one does not necessarily rule out the other," said Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev at the scene. He did not explicitly mention Russia.

The interior minister announced that safety measures at every ammunition depot in Bulgaria would now be inspected.

There has been a series of incidents at facilities belonging to defence companies in EU member states that are supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia's war against its neighbour.

On August 13, a fire led to an explosion at an ammunition factory not far from the Italian capital, Rome. The exact cause of the incident was not immediately known.

Also in August, a building belonging to the Estonian defence company Milrem Robotics in Tallinn is reported to have been severely damaged by a fire.

In Romania, which shares a border with Ukraine, the SRI intelligence service stated on September 8 that it had foiled a sabotage operation coordinated by Russia.

It is suspected that the explosions at EMKO sites in Bulgaria could form part of a wider pattern of suspected or confirmed acts of sabotage targeting Ukraine's military supply chains within NATO territory.