After a three-month investigation, the Istrian police have charged three Ukrainian citizens who deliberately started a fire in the port of Medulin on the Istrian peninsula in May, destroying 22 boats, the Croatian daily Jutarnji List reported on Saturday.
Reconstructing the events leading up to the fire, forensic experts have established that the three Ukrainian nationals — two men aged 25 and one 28 — had arrived in Croatia from Poland on May 14. They parked their car somewhere around Medulin and then set off on foot to the marina.
Surveillance cameras showed one of them sneaking under the fence while the other two stood guard in front of it. At 4 a.m., one perpetrator threw a bottle of flammable material onto one of the yachts and the fire spread to the other 34 boats, 22 of which were completely destroyed.
According to the authorities, the value of the damage caused to the owners exceeded €2 million.
Police have issued a wanted notice for the three Ukrainian nationals, who are believed to have left the country immediately after the incident and are currently unreachable by the Croatian authorities.
