Bulgarian authorities have detained Igor Grechushkin, the Russian shipowner linked to the ammonium nitrate shipment that triggered the catastrophic Beirut port explosion in 2020, Euronews reported. The blast, which tore through the Lebanese capital on August 4 of that year, killed at least 218 people, wounded more than 6,000, and destroyed large swathes of the city.

Grechushkin, who also holds Cypriot citizenship, was arrested last week at Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport after flying in from Cyprus, according to four judicial sources in Beirut. His detention comes nearly five years after a Lebanese judge issued Interpol arrest warrants for both Grechushkin and the vessel’s captain, Boris Prokoshev, also a Russian national.

Lebanese court officials told Euronews that extradition documents are now being prepared to formally request that Grechushkin be handed over to Beirut. Should Bulgaria decline to extradite him, investigators from Lebanon may travel to Sofia to carry out questioning on Bulgarian soil.

The ammonium nitrate that detonated in 2020 had been offloaded from Grechushkin’s vessel years earlier and stored haphazardly in a warehouse at the port. Investigators say the disaster was triggered by a fire that ignited the improperly stored stockpile, unleashing one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in modern history. Damages were estimated in the billions of euros and compounded Lebanon’s already spiraling economic collapse, which the World Bank has described as among the worst in more than a century.

Despite the scale of the tragedy, no Lebanese public official has been convicted. The investigation has faced repeated political and legal hurdles. Lead investigator Fadi Sawan, who in December 2020 filed negligence charges against former Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three ex-ministers, was later removed from the case under political pressure. His successor, judge Tarek Bitar, revived the stalled probe this July, summoning senior figures from Lebanon’s political, judicial, and security establishments in an effort to push the inquiry forward.

Earlier this year, Lebanon installed a new leadership with the election of President Joseph Aoun and the appointment of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam alongside a reformist cabinet. The government pledged to complete the long-delayed investigation and bring those responsible to account.

To date, however, accountability has remained elusive, and the arrest of Grechushkin in Bulgaria marks the first significant move in years that could potentially advance the stalled judicial process.