Bulgaria investigates arms depot blast link to Russia
April 28, 2021
Prosecutors in Bulgaria say they are collecting evidence about the possible involvement of Russia in explosions at Bulgarian arms depots. Officials claim there may be a link with similar blasts in the Czech Republic.
Emilian Gebrev was the victim of an attempted poisoning, and a depot holding his stock of weapons was targetedImage: BGNES
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Bulgarian prosecutors on Wednesday said they were investigating the possible involvement of six Russians in four explosions at arms depots from 2011 to 2020.
The arms stores were holding munitions destined for export to Ukraine and Georgia, the prosecution team said.
"The collected evidence points so far, with a great degree of credibility, to the conclusion that the aim of the actions of the Russian citizens was to stop the supplies [...] to Georgia and Ukraine," Mileva said. "Evidence is being collected on the complicity of these six Russian citizens."
Mileva said the team of prosecutors was talking to Czech counterparts to investigate possible connections. The 2014 explosions in the Czech Republic were at depots that stored munitions Gebrev owned.
Prosecutors claim the blast at Gebrev's company EMCO in 2011, two explosions at state arms company VMZ in 2015 and a fourth at private arms firm Arsenal in 2020 all had no obvious technical cause.
All were triggered remotely and followed the outbreak of fires apparently timed to allow workers to leave the area and avoid casualties.
Eastern Ukraine: Saber-rattling between Moscow and Kyiv
Tanks rumble past, cannons thunder: Both Russia and Ukraine have reinforced military presence at their common border in the Donbass region. Both sides are accusing each other of provocation. Is escalation imminent?
Image: Serhoy Takhmazov/Reuters
Troops deployed to the Donbass region
In the first week of April, Russia had begun to build up its military presence at the border with Ukraine. This was a reaction to Ukraine's "provocations" — which were aimed at escalating the conflict between Russian separatists and Ukrainian government troops, the Kremlin said. According to observers sent by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), there was no provocation.
A tank fires during control checks of Russia's armed forces. On both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian border, troops are testing the combat readiness of their weapon systems. This thumbnail was taken from a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry.
The US, NATO and the EU have pledged support for Ukraine's efforts to defend its territory. Ankara said on Friday that the US had already announced at the end of March that it would be sending two warships to the Black Sea in mid-April. The USS Thomas Hudner (pictured) is one of two missile destroyers which sailed through the Bosporus in March.
Image: Murad Sezer/REUTERS
War raging for seven years
The conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out in early 2014, when pro-Russian rebels seized control in parts of the Ukrainian districts of Donetsk and Luhansk. According to the Ukrainian government and its Western allies, the Kremlin supports the rebels unofficially by providing mercenaries and weapons. Since 2014, several ceasefires have been agreed upon. They were, however, broken time and again.
Image: Oleksandr Klymenko/REUTERS
Civilians bear the brunt
A Donetsk resident inspects the ruins of his house, destroyed during a conflict between militants of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Ukrainian armed forces. Although mainly soldiers, mercenaries, rebels and militiamen are involved in the conflict, the civilian population is repeatedly affected. At the beginning of 2019, the UN recorded 3,300 civilians killed.
Image: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
Ceasefires and hostilities
Since 2014, combat activities of varying intensity have claimed the lives of a total of more than 13,000 people. The current ceasefire, in force since July 2020, is relatively stable, according to the OSCE. Recently, however, hostilities have increased again. At least seven Ukrainian government soldiers and a five-year-old boy were killed during the last two weeks.
Image: Serhiy Takhmazov/Reuters
Boosting the troops' morale
During a visit to the Donbass region earlier in the week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy inspected the situation on the ground and honored soldiers for services rendered. On Saturday, he will meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey. According to Ukrainian media reports, a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron is on the agenda as well.
Image: Presidency of Ukraine/picture alliance
Russian citizens on Ukrainian soil
By international law, the renegade areas belong to Ukraine. However, some 400,000 residents with Russian citizenship inhabit the zone. "To protect them," Moscow announced on Friday, the Kremlin would take action. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, meanwhile, said that "Russia now has more troops on the border with Ukraine than at any time since 2014."
Image: Alexander Usenko/AA/picture alliance
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Disputes with Russia widen
Moscow and Prague are locked in their biggest row since the end of the Cold War, after Czech officials claimed Russian spies were behind the explosions on its soil.
Russia has rejected the Czech allegations as absurd and also dismissed the Bulgarian investigation on Wednesday.
"Either the Bulgarian side knew nothing and only now, after the Czech Republic announced the 2014 incident, decided to outshine the Czechs and look further back into history," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters. "Or they knew about it for all this time but did not make it public for some reason."
