On the morning of 20 March, a storage hall in Pardubice's industrial zone on Dělnická street caught fire and spread to an adjacent administrative building belonging to LPP Holding. By around 8 am, fire services reported that hidden hotspots were being extinguished; air quality monitoring found no hazardous substances, and no injuries were recorded. The extent of the damage has not yet been established, according to Czech media.
Czech Interior Minister Lubomír Metnar announced on X the same day that he had convened a crisis meeting: "I convened the Interior Minister's crisis staff today in connection with the fire at a hangar in Pardubice. The incident resulted in no casualties, property damage was recorded. We are studying all available information. There is a probable connection with a terrorist attack."
The plant and its work for Ukraine
LPP Holding is the Czech company behind the "Gift for Putin" initiative, which is currently raising funds for the MTS 40 strike drone. Co-owner Radim Petráš had previously stated the company had already delivered hundreds of AI-guided drones to Ukraine and that Ukrainian forces had responded positively to them.
The day after the fire, Gift for Putin issued a direct public statement: "In connection with the terrorist attack in Pardubice, we want to publicly repeat the information we confirmed again with LPP's owners last night. The fire will not affect the planned delivery of MTS 40 strike drones to Ukraine."
LPP's work had attracted Russian media attention before the attack. Novinky reported that Komsomolskaya Pravda had published a piece on the company's AI navigation technology the previous year.
The claim — and LPP's denial
A journalist at Aktuálně.cz received an email on the morning of the fire from a previously unknown group calling itself The Earthquake Faction: "Today in the early morning, a key center for the production of Israeli weapons was set on fire by an underground group to end its role in the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza."
The email went further, identifying the facility as "a joint project of Czech company LPP Holding and Elbit Systems for key operations in Central Europe," and describing Elbit as "the backbone of the Israeli army."
LPP spokeswoman Martina Tauberová rejected both claims in an interview with Czech Television on the evening of 20 March. No Israeli drones had ever been produced at the plant, she said, and a planned cooperation with Elbit Systems announced in 2023 had never moved forward after the Czech Defense Ministry canceled the relevant tender.
Elbit has previously been targeted in arson attacks in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Germany, according to Czech news agency ČTK.
False flag under examination
Czech security services are not treating the Earthquake Faction's claim at face value. According to Seznam Zprávy, investigators are also working with the possibility of a "false flag" operation — meaning the group may be serving as cover for another actor or a state-directed entity. The outlet noted that the Earthquake Faction has no traceable history and no known connections to the pro-Palestinian movement.
Police confirmed they are working with four versions of events, all involving deliberate intent, reports Novinky. The Security Intelligence Service (BIS), military intelligence, and the National Center for Combating Terrorism, Extremism and Cybercrime (NCTEKK) are all participating in the investigation alongside forensic experts.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, speaking after a meeting of the Czech State Security Council, drew an explicit parallel with a previous case: "We know very well what happened, we remember Vrbětice" — a reference to the 2014 munitions warehouse explosions in Vrbětice later attributed to Russian military intelligence. He called on companies producing military equipment, components, and technology to provide better protection for their premises. Officials confirmed the terrorism threat level remained at two on a four-point scale, indicating moderate risk.
Industry response
By 23 March, several Czech defense companies had moved to implement tighter security. Aero Vodochody, which manufactures military and trainer aircraft, said it had reinforced on-site security, expanded airspace monitoring, and placed its fire service on full alert. Bagira Systems and Česká zbrojovka also confirmed they had reviewed or reinforced their security measures, according to Czech media.
LPP stated it is cooperating with police and will wait for the official conclusions of the investigation before commenting further.
