In Bulgaria, near the town of Karnobat, an explosion occurred at the arms depot of the EMKO company of businessman Amilin Gebrev, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA) reports . He has been supplying weapons to Ukraine since 2014.
Locals talk about "several powerful explosions" that sounded around one in the morning. The regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Burgas confirms this information and notes that there were no casualties as a result of the incident. Now the object is closed, within 72 hours a group of experts and investigators will be formed to find out the cause of the fire. The extent of the damage has not yet been reported.
The warehouse belongs to the EMKO company of businessman Emelyan Gebrev. It was located on the territory of four former army barracks. In August 2022, a fire broke out at another Gebrev armory. Then the businessman declared that the arson was deliberate and that there could be no talk of a “human error”.
In 2014, the Gebrev warehouse in the Czech Republic was blown up. Then The New York Times found out that he sent ammunition to Ukraine in boxes that were marked as going to Thailand.
The Insider previously detailed how GRU officers from military unit 29155 hunted Gebrev, as he was one of Ukraine's key munitions suppliers during the Russian invasion in 2014. After a bombing in the Czech Republic failed to help the GRU stop the arms shipments, intelligence officials attempted to kill Gebrev with a nerve agent.
In 2015, an assassination attempt was made on Yemelyan Gebrev. Gebrev (as well as his son and one of the top managers of his company) were hospitalized with symptoms of severe poisoning. Later, a laboratory at the University of Helsinki, specializing in chemical weapons, was able to detect traces of two organophosphates, which indicated that an attempt was made to kill the businessman with a nerve agent belonging to the Novichok family.