Photo: facebook.com.wbelectronics 3
A fire broke out overnight on August 31 at a factory in the Polish city of Skarżysko-Kamienna that produces drones for the Ukrainian and Polish armed forces. Surveillance cameras reportedly recorded a masked person entering the facility, Onet reports.
What happened at WB Electronics
The fire started at around 12:23 a.m. at a plant belonging to Polish defense company WB Electronics.
At the same time, a security company operator alerted police after an intrusion alarm was triggered on the premises.
The district fire service described the blaze as relatively small. Police said the factory was not operating at the time, so no one was injured.
A backpack and a sweatshirt were later found near the facility and may have belonged to someone involved in the incident.
According to unofficial information, surveillance footage captured an unidentified person wearing a balaclava entering the factory grounds by climbing over the fence.
“ABW officers are working to establish whether this was an act of sabotage,” said Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for Poland’s security services coordinator.
What is known about WB Electronics
WB Electronics is Poland’s largest private defense company. It produces, among other systems, the FlyEye and Warmate drones, which are used by the Ukrainian military.
The Skarżysko-Kamienna facility manufactures composite structures and control systems for unmanned aircraft.
The incident comes after an explosion and fire at an ammunition plant near Rome on August 13. The facility, owned by KNDS Ammo Italy, cooperates with Ukraine. The fire broke out in a gunpowder pressing workshop, and no casualties were reported.
Meanwhile, Serhii Pashynskyi, head of Ukraine’s National Association of Ukrainian Defense Industries (NAUDI), has said that Ukraine’s private defense manufacturers now have production capacity exceeding the volume of state orders, while a regulated mechanism for arms exports has yet to be introduced.
