Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
A masked figure climbed a fence in the small hours, and a backpack and a sweatshirt were later found on the site.
Sabotage suspicions have shadowed Polish arms production for more than a year, ever since Warsaw began openly linking Kremlin-run networks to a string of arson attacks on Western infrastructure.
This week, the pattern reached the country’s most prominent drone maker, at a facility whose products are actively used on the front line in Ukraine.
Prosecutors from the Kraków branch of Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office have opened a terrorism inquiry into a fire at a WB Electronics plant in Skarżysko-Kamienna, in south-central Poland, and are treating it as a suspected act carried out with “participation of foreign intelligence” against the Republic of Poland.
The blaze broke out shortly after midnight on Monday, August 31, and destroyed warehouse buildings on the site.
Investigators say the fire was set with an incendiary device. In their formal notice, the prosecutors described “intentionally starting a fire on the premises of WB Electronics in Skarżysko-Kamienna on 31 August 2026 by planting a charge containing flammable materials.”
Masked intruder captured on camera
Security cameras recorded an unidentified person wearing a balaclava climbing the perimeter fence, according to Euronews. A backpack and a sweatshirt were later found near the plant.
The local fire service described the blaze as “not large,” and firefighters brought it under control in under two hours. No one was hurt.
Prosecutors put the damage at “at least 15 million PLN,” or roughly 3.5 million euros. Company spokesman Remigiusz Wilk told Euronews the plant would resume work once investigators finished, and that deliveries to the military were not expected to be delayed.
WB Electronics is one of Poland’s largest private defence companies. Its FlyEye reconnaissance drones and Warmate loitering munitions are in active use by Ukrainian forces, the Kyiv Independent reported.
A second warehouse fire the day before
The Skarżysko-Kamienna case is not isolated. A separate fire broke out on Sunday in Lublin at a warehouse belonging to another company that supplies aviation and drone parts.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Gałecka declined to say whether the two incidents are being examined as connected, telling reporters only that “every aspect will be thoroughly investigated,” according to Notes from Poland.
In Slovakia on August 25, police arrested three people suspected of plotting arson against a Ukrainian-owned factory producing surveillance drones, the Kyiv Independent noted in its coverage.
A widening shadow campaign
Poland has been at the center of what Western officials describe as a Russian-directed campaign of low-level sabotage against countries arming Ukraine.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned days before the fire that “the next seven to eight months could be critical for the security of Ukraine and the entire European region,” a line cited in Meduza’s coverage of the plant fire.
The Internal Security Agency (ABW), Poland’s domestic intelligence service, is running the operational side of the investigation in cooperation with regional police and the prosecutor’s office. Al Jazeera reported that no further details would be released “due to their specific and confidential nature.”
Under Polish law, the terrorism and foreign-intelligence charges being examined by prosecutors carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, according to Defense Express. No suspects have been named, and authorities have not publicly identified which foreign service they believe is involved.
