A new, powerful fire broke out in a storage room at Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev's EMCO arms company in Karnobat, eastern Bulgaria, the manufacturer told RFE/RL on June 25. This is the second recent suspicious incident at the site after a fire led to a munitions explosion on July 31, 2022. At that time, Gebrev said he was "100 percent sure" Russian operatives were behind the fire, though he acknowledged to RFE/RL that he had no direct evidence. It remains unclear whether any of the Karnobat munitions were destined to aid Ukraine’s defense against Russia's invasion. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Bulgarian Service, click here. To read the results of a special RFE/RL investigation into the previous incident, click here.
