Poland investigates suspected plot to torch drone factory supplying Ukraine

By Necva Tastan Sevinc

ISTANBUL (AA) - Polish prosecutors are investigating a suspected plot to set fire to a factory supplying military drones to Ukraine, TVP World reported Thursday.

The alleged plot targeted a Flytronic facility in the southern city of Gliwice, owned by WB Group, Poland’s largest privately owned defense manufacturer.

Prosecutors in Gliwice said they opened an investigation into an attempt to recruit someone to carry out sabotage on behalf of a foreign intelligence service. The case has been handed to the Internal Security Agency (ABW).

Media outlet Vot Tak uncovered the alleged plot earlier this month after one of its journalists, posing as a Belarusian seeking work, contacted a recruiter on Telegram.

The recruiter, using the pseudonym Joker, initially offered payment for torching vehicles with Ukrainian license plates before proposing a $30,000 arson attack on the drone factory.

The channel traced the recruiter’s account to a Russian telephone number registered in the Saratov region, according to the report.

Flytronic manufactures FlyEye reconnaissance drones that Ukrainian forces use to direct artillery fire.

The investigation follows a fire at another WB Group facility in Skarzysko-Kamienna in August, which Prime Minister Donald Tusk described as “an act of sabotage.”

Prosecutors are examining whether that fire was deliberately started on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency.

Necva Taştan Sevinç