In a double whammy for Vladimir Putin, saboteurs today derailed a Russian freight train and destroyed power cables with explosive devices.
The train, loaded with oil and building materials, burst into flames after detonating on the tracks in the Bryansk region, 60 km from the Ukrainian border.
Video taken shortly after the attack showed several wrecked carriages ablaze and lying on their sides as dark gray smoke billowed into the air.
Local governor Alexander Bogomaz said the explosive device was detonated “on the 136th kilometer” of the railway line between Bryansk and the city of Unekha – a line used to transport Moscow’s military supplies.
The sabotage attacks came as Kiev prepared for a widely anticipated counteroffensive this spring, in which Ukraine built up its mechanized brigades with armor supplied by its western allies.
A Russian freight train derailed today and burst into flames after an explosive device detonated on the tracks just 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border
The train loaded with Russian tanks was attacked in the Bryansk region of Russia, local governor Alexander Bogomaz said, adding there were no casualties
The video shows several wrecked oil tankers ablaze after the explosion, lying on their sides as dark gray smoke billows into the air
Separately, the governor of Russia’s Leningrad region near St. Petersburg said a power line blew up overnight and an explosive device was found near a second line
Russian Railways, the country’s rail operator, said the attack on the freight train took place at 10:17 a.m. Moscow time (07:17 GMT).
It was said that the locomotive and seven boxcars derailed and the locomotive caught fire.
“An unidentified explosive device went off at the 136-kilometer mark on the Bryansk-Unekha railway line and derailed a freight train,” Bogomaz said, adding that there were no injuries.
Russian Railways later said the fire was extinguished by 12:30 p.m. local time (0930 GMT) and that passengers on two Moscow-bound trains in the area would be taken by bus to the regional capital, Bryansk.
Russian authorities say the region, which borders both Ukraine and Belarus, has seen multiple attacks by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 14 months since Russia invaded.
Separately, the governor of Russia’s Leningrad region near St. Petersburg said a power line blew up overnight and an explosive device was found near a second line.
An explosion just after midnight caused the main power lines to collapse and officials said the attack was a act of sabotage.
Governor Alexander Drozdenko posted photos of destroyed power lines and metal supports near the village of Susanino on his Telegram page on Monday morning.
The video shows several wrecked armored cars ablaze after the explosion, lying on their sides as dark gray smoke billows into the air
An explosion just after midnight caused the main power lines to collapse and officials said the attack was a act of sabotage
Governor Alexander Drozdenko posted photos of destroyed power lines and metal supports on his Telegram page on Monday morning
He said Russia’s Federal Security Service FSB was working at the site and did not say who he believed was responsible for the incident.
There were reports of sabotage on railroads in Russia and its ally Belarus during Moscow’s more than year-long offensive in Ukraine.
However, this was the first time Russian officials have confirmed an attack of this magnitude.
The head of Ukraine’s intelligence service, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, said some incidents in Russia were orchestrated by Ukraine.
“A lot of this is no coincidence,” he said. “Something’s always on fire [in Russia].
“Signal systems on railways, it lights up several times a day, on various motorways constantly for two to three hours, sometimes for five to six hours, traffic is stopped.”
He admitted that Kiev was behind some of the sabotage attacks. ‘Sure, it doesn’t just happen… I would put it this way: money works wonders.’
The attacks came after Russia fired a series of rockets into Ukraine this morning, killing one person in Kherson and injuring at least 34 people in the eastern city of Pavlohrad.
Firefighters work in a residential area hit by a Russian airstrike in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, on Monday
Local resident Liubov Vasylieva, 77, wipes away tears as she stands among the rubble of her destroyed home Monday after the airstrike in Pavlohrad, Ukraine
Air raid sirens began wailing over Kiev at around 3:45 am, followed by the sounds of explosions as missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian defense systems.
A total of 18 cruise missiles were launched from the Murmansk region and the Caspian region and 15 of them were intercepted, said the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Three days ago, Russia killed 23 Ukrainian civilians with a missile that hit a high-rise apartment building in downtown Uman, part of its first major nationwide barrage of airstrikes in nearly two months.
Russia appears to have returned to its winter tactic of nationwide airstrikes, while Ukraine prepares a counteroffensive to retake occupied lands to the south and east.
On Saturday, an apparently Ukrainian drone struck a fuel depot in Sevastopol, the Russian naval base in Crimea that Moscow seized in 2014. Kiev said the fire was part of its preparations for its offensive.
After five months of a Russian onslaught that secured little new territory despite the bloodiest ground fighting of the war, Kiev is preparing its counterattack with hundreds of armored vehicles and tanks supplied from the West.