[3] According to the Security Information Service and the Police of the Czech Republic, two agents from GRU Unit 29155 were involved in the explosions, with the motivation of disrupting weapons supplies to Ukraine.

[6] Both destroyed warehouses were located on the site of the state-owned Military Technical Institute (Vojenský technický ústav, or VTÚ), leased by the Ostrava-based arms company Imex Group.

[19] According to the Security Information Service and the Police of the Czech Republic, the depot explosions were probably engineered by Russian military intelligence (GRU) officers.

[23] Two Russian intelligence officers Alexander Mishkin and Anatoly Chepiga suspected of carrying out the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018 were alleged to have been involved in the explosions.

They requested permission to visit the warehouses for the period of 13–17 October from Imex, using fake passports of citizens of Tajikistan and Moldova (Chepiga as Ruslan Tabarov, Mishkin as Nicolaj Popa).

[31] According to the news portal of Seznam.cz, the ammunition was to be sold to the Syrian opposition battling in the civil war against the armed forces led by Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russia.

Supplies from the other company were purchased out by the GRU at a higher price, thus making them unavailable for Ukraine, while EMCO agreed to a sale to Ukrainian armed forces, which significantly increased their defense capabilities against Russian intervention.

[35] According to the conclusions of the joint investigation by Bellingcat, Der Spiegel, Respekt and The Insider, six officers of the GRU, led by the head of military unit 29155, general Andrey Averyanov, took part in the operation.

In addition to Averyanov, Mishkin and Chepiga, among these six officers were Nikolay Yezhov, Denis Sergeev (cover identity "Sergey Fedotov") and Egor Gordienko ("Georgy Gorshkov").

[39] On January, 30 2024 Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office announced that it issued a European Arrest Warrant against six Russian nationals accused of terrorism based on the court rulings.

[22][21][26][49] On 19 April, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said that the incident was not an act of state terrorism, but a botched operation to destroy the goods of a Bulgarian ammunition trader, "who was probably selling those weapons to parties fighting against Russia".

[64] In response to Zeman's comments, Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hamáček on 26 April said that "only one line of investigation exists on the Vrbětice case and that is the one connected with movements of those members of the [GRU] unit 29155" and that "the president's speech was such that everybody found something in it to please them including the Russian Federation, unfortunately".

"[49] The Czech Republic was also fully supported by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, Dominic Raab, who stated that this event corresponded to the previous behaviour of Russian secret service agents, as was revealed, for example, in Salisbury.

[66][67] The chairman of the Britain's Commons foreign affairs select committee, Tom Tugendhat, stated that "the explosions in Vrbětice are the murder of two Czech citizens and a direct attack on a NATO country.

[69] On 20 April, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia of the Visegrád Group issued the statement "We are ready to continue to build our resilience against subversion.

The Foreign Ministers of Poland, Slovakia and Hungary express their solidarity with the latest actions taken by the Czech Republic, our close partner, ally and neighbor.

"[70] On 22 April, NATO′s North Atlantic Council issued a statement that concluded by saying, "Allies express deep concern over the destabilising actions Russia continues to carry out across the Euro-Atlantic area, including on Alliance territory, and stand in full solidarity with the Czech Republic.

On 23 April, Vladimir Putin signed a decree establishing a list of "unfriendly countries" which will be banned from hiring Russians at their diplomatic missions.

On 27 April, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that additional countries could be added to the unfriendly list, especially the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and also Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine, and on 10 June, Poland was proposed to be added to the unfriendly list because Andrzej Duda had called the explosions a "violation of international law".