Slovak police thwart arson plot targeting Ukrainian drone factory, media reports

Slovak police detained three foreign nationals on Aug. 25 over an alleged plot to set fire to a Ukrainian-owned Skyeton factory producing advanced surveillance drones, Dennik N reported.The incident marks one of the first known attempts to target a military equipment manufacturer in Slovakia, according to Dennik N. Two suspects were detained in Slovakia, while a third was arrested in Germany under a European arrest warrant. Slovak police did not disclose the nationalities of the detained individuals in its statement. The alleged plotters' actions could have sparked a "large-scale fire" at the facility, where about 70 people were present at the time and property was valued at "tens of millions of euros," police said.Police seized an incendiary mixture of gasoline and polystyrene — a homemade form of napalm — along with tools, cell phones, an action camera and a hand-drawn map of the facility they allegedly planned to set on fire.Skyeton did not immediately comment on the reported arson attempt targeting the production facility.Skyeton announced plans to open a production facility in Haniska, near Presov, Slovakia's third-largest city, in spring 2024. The Ukrainian company expected the new site to employ up to 200 people by the end of 2025, according to the statement. Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, sabotage and arson attempts targeting industrial and logistics infrastructure have increased across the EU, particularly at facilities involved in weapons production. Russia has regularly recruited both foreign nationals and its own citizens to carry out such operations in NATO and EU countries.Similar incidents have been reported in other EU countries in recent months. In March, perpetrators set fire to a facility belonging to Ukrainian company Archer-LPP, which manufactured thermal imaging devices, in the Czech city of Pardubice. Earlier in August, two suspects were detained in connection with an arson attack on a building belonging to Estonian defense company Milrem Robotics, which supplies unmanned ground systems to Ukraine.