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Euronews: Nexta linked Goranboy fire to political context without evidence

05 September 2026 15:48 (UTC +04:00)

Euronews Serbia has published an article about the fire that broke out at an ammunition depot near Nizami village in Azerbaijan’s Goranboy district and the information circulated surrounding the incident, APA reports.

The article, titled “Why does Baku claim that a hybrid information attack is being carried out against Azerbaijan over the fire at the ammunition depot?”, presents statements by Azerbaijani state institutions regarding the incident, as well as claims circulated by Nexta, a Belarusian opposition media platform based in Poland.

The article notes that on the night of September 1-2, a fire accompanied by explosions broke out at an ammunition depot near Nizami village in Goranboy district. No one was killed or injured as a result of the incident, and no damage was caused to nearby facilities.

Citing a joint statement by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Internal Affairs, Euronews Serbia writes that employees of the relevant agencies were immediately deployed to the scene and the situation was brought under control. For safety purposes, approximately 5,000 residents were evacuated from the villages of Nizami and Khoylu and were allowed to return to their homes that evening.

The article specifically emphasizes that Azerbaijani authorities have not disclosed any information about the cause of the fire as the investigation is ongoing.

Nevertheless, the Nexta channel published material presenting the incident as a possible act of sabotage before its cause had been determined.

“Despite the absence of official reports from the scene, the Poland-based Belarusian opposition media platform Nexta published material on the social network X suggesting that the incident could have been an act of sabotage,” Euronews Serbia writes.

One of the key points highlighted in the article is that Nexta did not provide any source or evidence to support this assumption. It is stated that in its material published under the headline “Sabotage in Azerbaijan?”, the channel linked the fire at the ammunition depot to the current state of Baku-Moscow relations.

“Without providing any evidence or citing any official or unofficial source, Nexta linked the incident at the ammunition depot to relations between Baku and Moscow and stated that these relations ‘have been tense for a long time,’” the article notes.

Euronews Serbia writes that in this context, Nexta also mentioned that the Azerbaijani Prosecutor’s Office had placed three Russian citizens on the international wanted list. The channel also claimed, without citing any official statement, that Russia had “for years suspected” Azerbaijan of secretly supplying weapons to Ukraine.

The article also draws attention to a contradiction in Nexta’s approach. Although the channel itself acknowledged that the cause of the fire had not been determined, it immediately went on to link the incident to Azerbaijan-Russia relations.

“Moreover, although Nexta’s material acknowledges that the cause of the fire has not been determined, the incident is immediately linked to Azerbaijan-Russia relations,” Euronews Serbia emphasizes.

The article also extensively presents the position of Azerbaijan’s Media Development Agency (MEDIA) on the issue. The Agency assessed the information circulated by Nexta as an approach based on subjective assumptions rather than substantiated evidence.

MEDIA stated that presenting the fire in the context of interstate political relations and attempting to shape public opinion on this basis is part of a hybrid information campaign being carried out against Azerbaijan.

“Analysis shows that the incident is part of a hybrid information campaign coordinated from a single center. Western media, which constantly accuse actors outside their own information environment of waging hybrid warfare, are themselves conducting an organized disinformation campaign against Azerbaijan,” MEDIA’s position was presented in the Euronews Serbia article.

The article also reflects the Agency’s position that similar approaches regarding Azerbaijan have recently been observed in a number of Western media outlets. MEDIA stated that such information is part of an information attack against Azerbaijan’s international reputation.

According to the Agency’s position, “the dissemination of such assumptions and accusations should be regarded as a clear manifestation of information manipulation.”