Explosion Rocks Bulgarian Arms Depot, Fuels Suspicions of Russian Involvement

According to the International Desk of Webangah News Agency, an explosion early Saturday at an arms storage facility near the village of Tsareva Livada in central Bulgaria resulted in a fire. Kristina Sidorova, the governor of the Gabrovo region, told reporters in the early hours of Saturday that the fire was contained within the factory storage base and was spreading from one warehouse to another. Local media, quoting an official from the EMCO company, reported that the facility belongs to the company, which experienced a similar explosion at another of its sites last month. The company is owned by Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev. Bulgarian prosecutors have previously alleged that Gebrev has been the target of attacks by Russian agents at his facilities. In 2024, Bulgaria issued arrest warrants for six Russian citizens accused of involvement in explosions and destruction at the company’s arms depots. These depots stored ammunition for export to Ukraine and Georgia between 2011 and 2020. Bulgarian prosecutors at the time stated that a logical connection could be drawn between the explosions in Bulgaria, an attempted poisoning of Gebrev in 2015, and an ammunition depot explosion in the Czech Republic in 2014. Moscow has denied these accusations.