Estonia says it is confident that the August 15 fire at the Milrem Robotics facility in Tallinn was a deliberate arson attack carried out on the orders of Russian special services. The company manufactures unmanned ground systems and supplies THeMIS unmanned vehicles to Ukraine.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said this.
According to Tsahkna, information collected by the country’s Internal Security Service makes it possible to conclude that the arson attack on the Milrem Robotics premises in Tallinn on the night of August 14-15 was an act of sabotage ordered by Russian special services. The perpetrators have already been detained.
“Such actions are absolutely unacceptable. In response, the Estonian Foreign Ministry will today summon Russia’s chargé d’affaires,” Tsahkna said.
The foreign minister described the arson attack as part of a broader Russian campaign across Europe aimed, he said, at intimidating European countries and weakening support for Ukraine.
“Our response will be the opposite. We will increase both our support for Ukraine and the pressure on Russia to end its aggression,” Tsahkna said.
The Kremlin rejected the accusations, calling them “unfounded.”
Milrem Robotics works closely with Ukraine and supplies it with THeMIS unmanned ground vehicles. Earlier, three people were reported to have been detained in connection with the arson case, two of them in Latvia.
At least seven incidents occurred in August and September at European facilities linked to supplying products to Ukraine. Fires broke out at facilities of the EMCO arms manufacturer in Bulgaria on August 10 and September 11, while an explosion occurred at the KNDS Ammo Italy plant near Rome on August 13.
On August 28, an attempted arson attack on a factory of the Ukrainian company Skyeton, which manufactures Raybird drones, was prevented in Slovakia. On August 31, a fire broke out at the WB Electronics facility in the Polish city of Skarzysko-Kamienna, and on September 16 at a ZVS Holding production site in Snina, Slovakia, where shell casings are manufactured, including for 155-mm ammunition.
The Telegraph’s sources in Western intelligence previously claimed that Russia had launched a new wave of attacks on European defence facilities. According to them, Moscow recruits members of local criminal groups through messaging apps to carry out sabotage and pays them in cryptocurrency.
Milrem Robotics plant / Photo: Delfi
