Saboteurs derail Russian freight train with explosives 60km from Ukraine, destroy power cables to Putin in double strike

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

The train, loaded with oil and construction materials, burst into flames after an explosion on the tracks in the Bryansk region, 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

Video taken shortly after the attack showed several wrecked wagons on fire and lying on their sides as dark gray smoke billowed into the air.

Local governor Alexander Bogomaz said the explosives detonated “on the 136th kilometer” of the railway 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 much-anticipated counter-offensive this spring, in which Ukraine built up its mechanized brigades with weapons supplied by its Western allies.

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

The video shows several wrecked oil tankers catching fire 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 was blown up overnight and an explosive device was found near a second line.

Russian Railways, the country’s railway company, said the attack on the freight train took place at 10:17 Moscow time (07:17 GMT).

The locomotive and seven coaches were said to have derailed and the locomotive caught fire.

“An unidentified explosive device went off at the 136-kilometer marker 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 local time (09:30 GMT) and passengers on two Moscow-bound trains in the region would be taken by bus to the regional capital, Bryansk.

According to Russian authorities, the region, which borders both Ukraine and Belarus, has seen several 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.

Just after midnight, an explosion knocked down main power lines and officials said the attack was an act of sabotage.

On Monday morning, Governor Alexander Drozdenko posted photos of destroyed power lines and metal supports near the village of Susanino on his Telegram page.

The video shows several wrecked tankers on fire after the explosion, lying on their sides as dark gray smoke billows into the air

Just after midnight, an explosion knocked out main power lines and officials said the attack was an act of sabotage

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

He said the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) was working at the scene, but did not say who he believed was responsible for the incident.

There have been reports of sabotage on railways in Russia and its ally Belarus during Moscow’s more than year-long Ukraine offensive.

However, it was the first time Russian officials had 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 not accidental,” he said. “Something is always on fire [in Russia].

“Signal systems on the route that burn several times a day, traffic stops on several highways for two to three hours, sometimes five to six hours.”

He admitted that Kiev was behind some sabotage attacks. “Of course 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 Monday at the site of a residential area hit by a Russian airstrike in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.

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

Around 03:45, air raid sirens began wailing over Kiev, followed by the sounds of explosions as missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian defense systems.

Eighteen cruise missiles were launched from the Murmansk region and the Caspian region, and 15 of them were intercepted, Ukrainian military commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.

Three days ago, Russia killed 23 Ukrainian citizens 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 tactics of nationwide airstrikes as Ukraine prepares for a counter-offensive to retake occupied territories in the south and east.

What appeared to be a Ukrainian drone attacked a fuel depot in Sevastopol, the Russian naval base in Crimea that Moscow seized in 2014, on Saturday. Kiev said the fire was part of preparations for the attack.

After five months of a Russian offensive that has gained little new territory despite the bloodiest ground battles of the war, Kiev is preparing its counterattack with hundreds of armored vehicles and tanks supplied from the West.