On March 20, a fire broke out at the “LPP Holding” defense company in the Czech city of Pardubice. The warehouse burned down, and the fire also spread to a neighboring administrative building.
This is reported by local media České noviny and Aktuálně.cz.
Police and other law enforcement agencies are investigating the fire as a suspected terrorist attack. They are working with four theories, all of which are linked to arson. According to firefighters, the burned hall was empty.
The holding companyʼs spokeswoman Martina Tauberova said that the attacked facilities included administrative premises and components for optoelectronic devices. According to her, the incident did not significantly affect production and it continues.
“The Earthquake Faction” group claimed responsibility for the arson. They explained their motivation by saying that the object set on fire was a project of the “LPP Holding” and Israelʼs “Elbit Systems” (the largest private defense concern in Israel).
However, a representative of the “LPP Holding” stated that although the company announced several years ago that it planned to develop and produce drones in Pardubice together with the Israelis, this cooperation never began — no production or projects related to “Elbit Systems” are carried out in Pardubice.
However, the head of the Ukrainian company “Archer” Oleksandr Yaremenko wrote on Facebook that the burned-down enterprise is “Archer-LPP” — a joint Ukrainian-Czech production. It manufactures high-tech optics, including thermal imagers and night vision devices, and supplies them to the Ukrainian troops. According to Yaremenko, despite the fire, the companyʼs products will be shipped on time.
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