Skopje, 17 September 2025 (MIA) - Interior Minister Panche Toshkovski said late Wednesday that it is a fact the country is facing a hybrid attack and that in the past few days fires have occurred at four critical sites. Toshkovski did not wish to share details about the investigations into the recent fires in Skopje, but noted that there are grounds for suspicion and indications of the involvement of more than twenty persons.

Asked on Sitel TV whether the motive behind these hybrid attacks through fires, and thus the endangerment of citizens’ health, was to topple the Government, Interior Minister briefly replied that there are such indications and that the “thread has begun to unravel.” He denied that these events would affect the local elections in the country.

“A hybrid attack against the country exists. That is a fact. I have never contradicted the Prime Minister on this matter, nor has he made false or groundless statements concerning it. The fact is that the state is under multi-dimensional attacks from different directions. I will speak only with facts. Fact: on the first day of the fires, we faced at least six to seven critical and vital locations, particularly for Skopje and for the country, where arson was committed. Fact: over the past two to three days, four high-risk sites have burned, including three landfills, both licensed and illegal and one electronic waste recycling plant. It is a fact that at one of these locations the machinery was out of order; a fact that those responsible, under the law and by-law, for observing one of the four critical sites were on sick leave or absent on the day the fire occurred. Another fact is that certain poles with surveillance equipment had been knocked down. These are too many coincidences for us to be convinced that this was not done with another purpose than the one being portrayed to the public,” Toshkovski said.

Furthermore, he added, it is a fact that 200 Roma live in Vardarishte and that some of them are probably directly responsible for setting the fires there; that electronic waste was most likely not kept properly; and that inspections conducted in recent days by the Ministry of Environment established improper storage of tires, waste oil, and other kinds of refuse within Skopje's Public Transport Enterprise (JSP).

He stated that he cannot currently disclose further information, pointing out that the Ministry has grounds for suspicion and indications about the matters raised in recent days.

“There is a larger group of people who are involved in one way or another in these processes,” Tashkovski said, adding that the group includes more than twenty people, but for the sake of the investigation he cannot provide additional details.

He repeated that, so far this summer, the Ministry of Interior has arrested around 40 people for the fires, but they are not connected among themselves as part of any organized group. He emphasized, however, that these individuals are not among those linked to the most recent fires.

“The Ministry of Interior is working intensively on this,” Toshkovski said.

Photo: MIA archive