Russian freight train derails after being hit by explosive device

Saboteurs today derailed a Russian freight train and destroyed power lines with explosives in a double blow to Vladimir Putin.

The freight train, carrying oil and construction materials, derailed and caught fire after an explosive device exploded on the tracks in the Bryansk region, just 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

Video taken shortly after the attack showed several destroyed carriages ablaze and lying on their sides, with dark gray smoke billowing into the sky.

Local governor Alexander Bogomaz said the explosive detonated “on the 136th kilometer” of the railway between Bryansk and the city of Unecha – a route used for transporting Moscow’s military supplies.

Russian Railways, the country’s rail operator, said the incident occurred at 10:17 Moscow time (07:17 GMT).

The train, carrying Russian tanks, was targeted in Russia’s Bryansk region, local governor Alexander Bogomaz said, adding there were no casualties.

Video shows several wrecked oil tanker wagons on fire and lying on their sides after the blast, with dark gray smoke billowing into the sky

Separately, the governor of Russia’s Leningrad region near St. Petersburg said a power line was blown overnight and an explosive device was found near a second line.

It said the locomotive and seven freight cars had derailed and the locomotive caught fire.

“An unidentified explosive device went off at the 136-kilometer marker on the Bryansk-Unecha railway line, derailing a freight train,” Bogomaz said, adding that there were no injuries.

According to Russian authorities, the region, which borders both Ukraine and Belarus, has seen multiple attacks by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 14 months since the Russian invasion.

Separately, the governor of Russia’s Leningrad region near St. Petersburg said a power line was blown up overnight and an explosive device was found near a second line.

Shortly after midnight, an explosion caused the main power lines to collapse and officials said the attack was sabotage.

Governor Alexander Drozdenko posted photos of destroyed power lines and metal supports on his Telegram page on Monday morning.

Video shows several wrecked tank cars on fire and lying on their sides after the blast, with dark gray smoke billowing into the air

Shortly after midnight, an explosion caused the main power lines to collapse and officials said the attack was sabotage

Governor Alexander Drozdenko posted pictures of destroyed power lines and metal supports on his Telegram page on Monday morning

He said Russia’s FSB federal security service was working at the site, but did not say who he believed was responsible for the incident.

The latest incidents come as Ukraine is expected to mount a counter-offensive against Putin’s forces.

Ukrainian intelligence chief Major General Kyrylo Budanov said some incidents in Russia are orchestrated by Ukraine.

“A lot of this is no coincidence,” he said. “Something is constantly on fire [in Russia].

‘Signal equipment on the track, which burns several times a day, traffic is at a standstill on various highways for two to three hours, sometimes five to six hours.’

He admitted that Kiev is behind some sabotage attacks. “Obviously it doesn’t just happen…. I would put it this way: money works wonders.’

The sabotage attacks came after Russia launched a series of missiles into Ukraine this morning, killing one person in Kherson and wounding at least 34 people in the eastern city of Pavlohrad.

Firefighters are working on Monday at the site of a residential area hit by a Russian airstrike in Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine.

Local resident Liubov Vasylieva, 77, wipes away tears as she stands among the rubble of her destroyed home after the airstrike in Pavlohrad, Ukraine, on Monday.

At around 3:45 am, air raid sirens began to wail in the capital Kyiv, followed by the sound of explosions as missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian defense systems.

Eighteen cruise missiles were fired from the Murmansk region and the Caspian region, and 15 of them were intercepted, Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.

The attacks came just three days after Russia killed 23 civilians with a missile that hit a high-rise apartment building in the city of Uman, part of its first major nationwide salvo of airstrikes in nearly two months.

Russia appears to have returned to its winter tactics of major nationwide airstrikes as Ukraine prepares for a counter-offensive to recapture occupied lands to the south and east.

On Saturday, an apparently Ukrainian drone hit a fuel depot in Sevastopol, the Russian Navy base in Crimea that Moscow seized in 2014. Kiev said the fire was part of preparations for its offensive.

After five months of a Russian assault that captured little new territory despite the bloodiest ground fighting of the war, Kiev is preparing to unleash its counterattack using hundreds of armored vehicles and tanks supplied by the West.