Romania's SRI Ties Carfil Fire in Brașov to a Russia-Coordinated Sabotage Network — Suspects Held in Germany and Poland
Bucharest, 26 October 2026
Key points
- The SRI, Romania's domestic intelligence service, said on 26 October that a sabotage network coordinated from the Russian Federation was involved in causing the 14 September fire on the Carfil industrial platform in Brașov, "in the immediate vicinity" of Carfil SA, a subsidiary of the state arms company Romarm
- DIICOT, the organised-crime and terrorism prosecutors, is pursuing three foreign nationals resident in EU states — two Belarusians and a Ukrainian — for attempted acts of diversion; two were remanded in Germany, DIICOT says, while preparing similar acts
- The foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador on 27 October; on 28 October Poland's Central Investigation Bureau arrested a Ukrainian citizen, Artem S., in Warsaw on the Romanian warrant, and a Polish court will decide on his surrender
- The SRI says the network's coordinators had assigned it arms plants, state and private, and other military and industrial targets across the region
Six weeks after a fire beside one of Romania's state arms plants, Bucharest has said Russia coordinated it, and the three accused are held in Germany and Poland.
The 14 September fire hit the premises of several companies on the Brașov platform, prosecutors say. Judges at the Bucharest Court of Appeal issued European arrest warrants in absentia; the third, for the suspect located in Poland, was issued on 26 October, and Romania is seeking the extradition of all three. DIICOT says they also had other targets in Romania and in other EU states. The SRI places the case in "a wider campaign of sabotage operations coordinated by the Russian Federation in Europe" and says this year's investigations found other attempts in Romania, including against international military facilities and sites used to train Ukrainian forces. It describes recruitment through social media, with small paid tasks — watching or photographing a site — escalating to arson. In the summons the foreign ministry told Vladimir Lipaev, the Russian ambassador, that Russia's responsibility is "proven by the evidence gathered". The Russian embassy said the accusation was unfounded, that "no evidence of any kind" had been presented, and that Russia had not planned or carried out sabotage in Romania or elsewhere.
Romania has attributed the fire through its intelligence service and its diplomats; the case now moves to courts outside Romania. Estonia named Russian services for the Milrem Robotics fire on intelligence assessed by KAPO, with the suspects charged with property damage; in Slovakia the Haniska plot produced a charge on commission with no commissioner named. In Brașov, as Signal No. 175 reported, the intelligence service and then the foreign ministry name Moscow, and prosecutors have charged three suspects. The charge, though, is an attempt, and the Romanian record places the fire beside Carfil SA rather than in it, while the Polish police describe the target as an arms plant. The surrender hearing in Warsaw and the extradition proceedings for the two held in Germany are where DIICOT's file is first tested outside Romania.
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