The investigation in the Czech Republic confirmed the involvement of Russia in the explosions at the ammunition depots in Vrbetice

In the Czech Republic, law enforcement officials have officially completed the investigation into the explosions at the ammunition warehouse in Vrbetice. The police confirmed that agents of Russian military intelligence were behind them.

iRozhlas and Seznam Zpravy write about it.

Czech investigators established that their main goal was to disrupt the delivery of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine and Syria.

The Czech Center for Combating Organized Crime did not specify the names of the perpetrators, but previously investigators named Anatoly Chepiga and Oleksandr Mishkin as responsible.

The head of the Czech Security and Information Service Michal Kudelka also said that GRU officers Chepiga and Myshkin were involved in the explosions.

According to him, Czech counter-intelligence agents also know other involved Russians, but Chepiga and Mishkin are considered the main organizers.

At the same time, the Czech police had to close the case because Russia refused to cooperate in any way with the Czech investigators.

"Possibilities for obtaining additional evidence in the Czech Republic or in countries that have granted Czech requests for legal assistance have been exhausted. This did not allow the police authorities to obtain additional information that would allow the initiation of a criminal prosecution, and for this reason they decided to postpone the case," said the director of the Center for Combating Organized Crime Jiri Mazanek.

• On April 18, 2021, the Czech government accused the Russian GRU of organizing an explosion at an ammunition depot near Vrbetice in 2014. These warehouses belonged to arms dealer Omelyan Gebrev. As a result of the explosions, two people died, and the work to eliminate the consequences of the explosions lasted almost six years.
• After that, the country announced the expulsion of 70 people, including diplomats. As a sign of solidarity, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Slovakia began expelling Russian diplomats. Subsequently, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic called on the EU countries to expel at least one Russian diplomat each.
• Investigative journalists reported that the explosions were organized by unit 29155 of GRU of Russia in order to disrupt the supply of ammunition to Ukraine. The operation was led by General Andrei Averyanov, and among the executors were the Skripalsʼ poisoners in Great Britain — Aleksandr Mishkin and Anatolii Chepiga. The same group is involved in two attempts to poison Gebrev, whose ammunition was stored in a Czech warehouse.
• At the end of June 2021, the Czech Republic demanded €25.5 million from Russia for the explosions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation announced an extortion.
• In August 2022, Gebrev said that he believed Russia was also involved in the explosion at his companyʼs ammunition warehouse in Bulgaria.