The Polish Mesko plant, where the explosion occurred, produced weapons for the Ukrainian Armed Forces
On June 10, a powerful explosion occurred at the Mesko arms factory in southern Poland. One person was injured, another could not be saved.
Mesko, among other things, produces weapons for Ukraine – the company assembles ammunition and anti-aircraft missile systems, which are then transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
An explosion occurred in a rocket fuel warehouse
The plant is located in the town of Skarzysko-Kamienna, 120 kilometers south of Warsaw. Director of the enterprise Elzbieta Sreniawska explainedthat the explosion occurred on Monday, June 10, around 10:00 local time, at a rocket fuel center that was put into operation several years ago. There were two workers inside at the time. The one who did not survive was 59 years old, the second one was taken to the hospital, there is no threat to his life. Firefighters, ambulances and police arrived at the scene. The fire that arose after the explosion was extinguished.
Plant management conducts investigation of what happened. “Everything is controlled there because it is a modern center,” Srenyavskaya said. Local police press attaché Yaroslav Gvozdz added that the circumstances of “this dramatic event” would be clarified later. A special team was created at the plant to investigate the causes of the explosion.
To the scene of the incident arrived and representatives of military counterintelligence. They only noted that it was too early to talk about the causes of the explosion.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has already said that there is no reason to believe that “external forces” were involved in the explosion.
Similar accidents have already occurred at the plant – two explosions occurred there in 2021, two women could not be saved. The cause of the explosion was the detonation of explosives during the preparation of a dangerous substance for transportation. The worker was allegedly carrying a package of freshly dried explosives when an involuntary detonation occurred. The trial over these incidents began in April this year.
The Mesko SA plant was named the largest manufacturer of ammunition, anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles in Poland. This year the company turned 100 years. In the past, civilian products were also produced there – bicycles, bearing machines, textile machines and weaving machines, calculating machines, electronic calculators. In the early 1990s, a restructuring process took place and production again concentrated on the production of weapons.
Mesko produces MANPADS and ammunition for Ukraine
The plant’s website indicated that in 2022, Mesko entered into a contract with the US Department of Defense for the production of several hundred Piorun man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) for their further transfer to Ukraine. In 2023, the company reported that Ukrainian troops were already equipped with Piorun, “the reliability of which has been repeatedly confirmed during the ongoing armed conflict in this country.”
In 2023, it was also reported about the launch of a joint production of tank ammunition with Kiev for supplies to Ukraine.
It is noted that the complexes produced at the plant are also purchased by Georgia – in January of this year, the Ministry of Defense of the Transcaucasian republic entered into an agreement with representatives of the same plant to purchase air defense equipment from Poland.
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