Poland investigates drone factory arson as terrorism. No evidence yet for second fire

Poland's National Prosecutor's Office is investigating a fire at a drone parts factory in Skarżysko-Kamienna as a terrorist act and simultaneously as participation in foreign intelligence activities against Poland. The camera system captured a masked man who crossed the fence and set fire to one of the halls; the damage is at least 15 million zloty. A day earlier, another Polish aerospace industry plant caught fire with even higher damage — and the prosecutor says they still don't know the cause of that one. Two days later, the same pattern repeated in Germany: someone threw incendiary devices from a car at the headquarters of a technology corporation in Munich, and Bavarian criminal police are investigating it as an attempted attack.

The company supplying two armies

The Skarżysko-Kamienna plant belongs to the WB Group and manufactures unmanned systems components. The best-known are the FlyEye reconnaissance drone and Warmate loitering munition — a device that circles above a target and then strikes it. According to an expert cited by Onet, the company ranks among Europe's absolute top performers in drone manufacturing capacity. Onet ↗

What matters is who it supplies. Not just the Polish Army, but also Ukraine's armed forces — and it was precisely in this context that Kyiv media wrote about the plant before the Polish government even named the fire. Kyiv Post ↗

Why investigators aren't working with coincidence

The fire broke out Monday shortly after midnight in a hall on Obuwnicza Street and firefighters contained it within two hours. The destroyed warehouse was estimated by prosecutors at least 15 million zloty in damage, and their spokesman Przemysław Nowak noted that the act under investigation carries a life sentence threat. No one has been charged yet. Onet ↗

The investigation is proceeding under Article 130 of the Polish Penal Code, which punishes participation in foreign intelligence activities against Poland, and simultaneously the act is classified as terrorist — the perpetrator allegedly placed an incendiary device on site. The area is therefore not only being worked by police, but also by the civil counterintelligence agency Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego, abbreviated ABW, and military counterintelligence SKW. TVN24 ↗

However, unofficial findings by Wirtualna Polska are most revealing. The recording shows one masked man, but investigators are working with the version that there were at least two. According to the newspaper's findings, they must have previously surveyed the terrain — knowing where to cross the fence, which hall to choose, and how security operates. This, according to the newspaper, rules out coincidence and suggests that someone had previously gathered that information on site. Wirtualna Polska ↗

Second fire, where arson is not proven

On Sunday afternoon, a JFG Composites warehouse in Lublin caught fire. More than forty firefighters extinguished it; the 2,100 square meter hall was completely destroyed, the roof collapsed. The company manufactures aircraft composites and is a subcontractor to Leonardo, which owns the helicopter maker PZL-Świdnik. The company initially estimated damage at five million euros, over 21 million zloty — more than in Skarżysko. Do Rzeczy ↗

And here the two cases diverge. While the government speaks of sabotage in Skarżysko and the prosecutor handles the case as terrorism, Lublin is being cautious. "The fire's cause is currently unknown. At this stage, it has not been established that the fire resulted from arson," spokesman Nowak told Wirtualna Polska. Deliberate arson remains one of the investigated scenarios alongside technical failure, but there is no evidence for it. Investigators secured the server portion of the camera system. Onet ↗

That difference is worth remembering, because in summaries the two fires quickly merge into a single sabotage story. Yet they differ in evidentiary situation. In Skarżysko there is camera footage and terrorism classification; in Lublin, even the arson itself is not confirmed.

What the government said

Deputy Interior Minister Czesław Mroczek confirmed on radio that the perpetrator was masked, and when asked about the Russian trace, answered that such a direction naturally presents itself. He recalled that diversions and sabotage have been occurring for years in countries supporting Ukraine, and that Poland maintains the third level of terrorist threat since the railway incident. Wirtualna Polska ↗

That statement about countries supporting Ukraine was confirmed by Germany two days later. Thursday night, someone threw incendiary devices from a car at the construction site in front of the headquarters of technology corporation Rohde & Schwarz in Munich. One caused a fire that police extinguished; another had to be disarmed by bomb disposal experts; damage remained limited. The Bavarian State Criminal Police took over the investigation and suspects a political background. At a nearby gas station, two people were detained — a 28-year-old woman and 38-year-old man who, according to Belgian and German media, are Bulgarian citizens, and their interrogation continues. Bavarian police have not yet confirmed they are directly connected to the act. (ZDF heute ↗, VRT NWS ↗, SRF ↗)

Prime Minister Donald Tusk went further on Tuesday and directly called the fire sabotage, accusing Russia of dangerous escalation. This very sentence was picked up by Slovak media. Aktuality.sk ↗

But there is a difference between government nomenclature and court-defensible evidence, one that Polish journalists are not hiding. A source close to the investigation described it to Wirtualna Polska with an image of a duck that has feathers, a beak, and swims. Conviction about who is behind the arson and evidence defensible in court are two different things. Wirtualna Polska ↗

The weak point is organization, not the fence

More interesting than the Russian trace is Polish criticism of its own apparatus. According to Wirtualna Polska sources, the case is marked by "jurisdictional confusion." Supervision and direction is determined by the National Prosecutor's Office, the investigation itself is led by its branch office in Kraków, evidence is collected by police and ABW, and a separate task force was also created in Kielce. Four centers, three cities — and none of the institutions wants to say who exactly is responsible for what.

Former ABW officer Marek Świerczek, who dealt with Russian services, also warns against shortcuts. The agency must assume sabotage, he argues, but the question of who ordered it is not as obvious as it seems. He also adds why plain explanation cannot be avoided: it's hard to assume someone burns a warehouse out of boredom, and this is not the 1990s but today's Poland, living in the immediate rear of war. Wirtualna Polska ↗

Yet one thing is completely lost in summaries. According to Onet, the Skarżysko plant was already operational by Tuesday and continues production. Whoever started the fire didn't stop production. The damage was to the warehouse, not the line. Onet ↗

And one more shift that changes the direction of view. Poland in this story had so far appeared as the target; now it also emerged on the other side of the trail: German investigators of a failed drone attack on Leipzig airport are, according to Polish media, examining connections leading to Poland and Serbia. (Do Rzeczy ↗)

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