Video shows moment US army accidentally stormed Bulgarian sunflower oil factory

Video has been recently released of the US Army illegally searching a cooking oil factory in Bulgaria, according to the warehouse’s owner.

The footage was published and by the television station Nova TV, an affiliate of CNN, who shared it on Wednesday.

The video shows three armed military personnel from the 173rd Airborne Brigade walking into what appears to be a warehouse. They go on to search the premises, and venture into the connecting garden area. The building’s interior has various pieces of industrial-looking equipment and it appears relatively deserted.

They mistook the factory for what they thought was a training ground, and it turns out that they had no authorization to be there at all, but believed it was part of the out-of-use airfield base they usually train on, Cheshnegirovo.

The US Army Europe and Africa released a statement on Tuesday following the intrusion on private property.

“The US Army takes training seriously and prioritizes the safety of our soldiers, our allies, and civilians. We sincerely apologize to the business and its employees. We always learn from these exercises and are fully investigating the cause of this mistake. We will implement rigorous procedures to clearly define our training areas and prevent this type of incident in the future,” the statement read.

The statement also outlined that no bullets had been fired during the incident.

The owner of the factory, Marin Dimitrov, told local press that he had filed legal proceedings against those bearing responsibility for the intrusion on the property, which took place on 11 May.

Bulgaria’s president Rumen Radev said it was “absolutely unacceptable to have the life and calm of Bulgarian citizens put at risk by military units, be they part of the Bulgarian or foreign armed forces.”

“Exercises in Bulgarian territory involving our Allies should boost the sense of security and trust in collective defense, instead of causing tension among Bulgarians.”

The country’s US embassy also issued an apology and announced that they intended to investigate to get a complete picture of how this happened and work to stop it happening in the future.

“We will implement rigorous procedures to clearly define our training areas and prevent this type of incident in the future,” the statement read.

The soldiers, and the wider regiment, are participating in Swift Response 2021, an international project with 7,000 personnel from a number of NATO countries based across Estonia, Bulgaria and Romania.