Romania says Russian-coordinated network set fire at Carfil arms site

Romania's intelligence service, SRI, said on Monday that a sabotage network coordinated from Russia caused a fire that broke out on 14 September at an industrial site in Brașov, next to the Carfil arms plant, part of state defence group Romarm.

Prosecutors at DIICOT, Romania's organised crime and terrorism agency, said three foreign nationals, two Belarusians and one Ukrainian, are being investigated over the fire on suspicion of attempted sabotage. Two of them were tracked down and detained in Germany, where they were allegedly preparing similar acts, while a European arrest warrant was issued on Monday for the third, located in Poland.

SRI said the network, made up of citizens of former Soviet states living in European Union countries, had been assigned a wider list of targets in the region by its Russian coordinators, including state and private arms factories and other military or industrial sites. The agency described the Brașov fire as part of a broader Russian sabotage campaign in Europe.

Investigators have also identified other attempted attacks on targets in Romania this year, including international military facilities and sites used to train Ukrainian forces, SRI said. The agency said such operations aim to intimidate targeted states and weaken their defence capabilities and contribution to European security.

SRI said recruitment for sabotage typically begins through social media, with people offered money for seemingly harmless tasks such as photographing a target, before being asked to carry out more serious acts including arson or attacks. Romania's emergency services said the fire, which broke out at 3.38am, damaged around 1,000 square metres of a building housing two car repair shops, a vehicle inspection station and a laundrette, and took about four hours to put out; no one was injured.