The Insider, citing the German news agency dpa, reports that the factory that caught fire manufactures components for combat drones. WB Group, which includes WB Electronics, is Poland’s largest private defense company and a supplier to the Polish Army. The company specializes in the development and production of cutting-edge technologies for the defense industry, including digital control systems, automated fire control systems, communications equipment, and modern unmanned and strike systems.
WB Group has a subsidiary in Ukraine—WB Ukraine. According to information on the group’s website, WB Ukraine supplies products to the Ukrainian army and also “leads the development of new products, supports modernization, and manages its own production in Ukraine.” The company’s product lineup includes UAVs, loitering munitions, and communications systems.
In July, WB Group announced that the European Commission had selected it as one of the founding members of the EU-Ukraine alliance on unmanned aerial vehicles—the first platform designed to bring together European and Ukrainian industries.
Incidents Have Become Too Frequent
The publication emphasizes that the fire in Poland is part of a series of similar incidents occurring with alarming regularity at defense facilities across Europe.
For example, in August, Slovak authorities reported that they had uncovered a plot to set fire to a factory belonging to the Ukrainian company Skyeton, which manufactures drones. The attack was prevented, and three suspects were detained.
Also in August, explosions and fires occurred at three other facilities within the European Union involved in arms supplies to Ukraine. On August 10, an explosion occurred in Bulgaria at a facility for the production and storage of ammunition owned by the defense company EMCO.
As reported by Logos Press, on August 13, an explosion and fire occurred at the Ammo Italy plant in Colleferro, near Rome. The plant is part of the KNDS holding company, which has a subsidiary in Ukraine. A few days later, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stated that Italian authorities had found no evidence that Russia was involved in the explosion.
Also, on August 15, the building of the Estonian company Milrem Robotics—which supplies Ukraine with unmanned ground combat vehicles—was set on fire in Tallinn. Two suspects in this act of sabotage were soon detained in Latvia.
The publication does not draw a direct conclusion that all these incidents are somehow interconnected. Nor does it conclude that Russia was involved in them. However, the very fact that there has been a chain of such events, along with the obvious connections between the factories where the fires occurred and the supply of weapons to Ukraine, points to a clear trend.
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