The essentials Several strategic locations, such as a military institute or a fuel depot, have been the scene of fires in Russia in recent days.
A large fuel depot caught fire on Monday (April 25) in the Russian city of Bryansk near the Ukrainian border. This incident follows a series of fire outbreaks that have devastated several strategic Russian locations in recent days. While deadly fires due to poor electrical installations are a daily occurrence in Russia, the attack in Ukraine raises the question of possible military strikes. La Dépêche takes stock.
A burning tank farm in Bryansk
A large fuel depot caught fire in a Russian town near the Ukrainian border on Monday, Russian authorities said, without specifying the reasons for the fire. “A fire has broken out at the Transneft Briansk-Druzhba tank farm in Briansk,” a city 150 km from the border with Ukraine that serves as a logistics base for Moscow’s military offensive in that country, the Emergency Situations Ministry, quoted by Russian, told news agencies .
Russia: Bryansk residents reported fire in area of Druzhba oil depot.
According to witnesses, they first heard loud noises, then the fire broke out. pic.twitter.com/YbScseQ0Jk— Rebecca Rambar (@RebeccaRambar) April 25, 2022
“According to initial information, there are no casualties,” he added. The reasons for this fire were not specified. The Fokinsky district of the city of Bryansk, the local branch of the Ministry of Emergency Situations said, adding that rescuers and firefighters did it at night in Bryansk sent red to the scene while thick smoke billowed into the sky.
The Interfax news agency reported that a second tank farm was on fire in the same area, but this information could not be immediately confirmed. About 150 km from the Ukrainian border, the city of Bryansk is serving as a logistical base for the military intervention that Russia has been conducting in Ukraine for more than two months.
Moscow has repeatedly accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out attacks on Russian soil, specifically on a village in the Briansk region, in mid-April. In early April, the governor of the Belgorod region, also on the border, claimed that Ukrainian helicopters fired on a fuel depot.
A fire in a space center
Another fire broke out in a building of the Russian space center RKK Energiya in the town of Korolev near Moscow, where many companies in the aviation industry are based.
The city of Korolev is known as the “space capital of Russia”: it is considered one of the largest scientific and research centers in the Moscow region.
A chemical plant and a military institute catch fire
On Thursday, April 21, two fires broke out on Russian soil almost simultaneously.
The first concerns the Dmitrievsky chemical plant in the Ivanovo region of central Russia. Large clouds of smoke enveloped the factory and were shared on social media.
\ud83d\udd34#URGENTLY: Major fire in one of the largest chemical factories in the world #Russia, precisely in Dmitrievsky in the city of Kineshma. This is the second fire to break out in the country on Thursday, after the one in Tver which killed 5 people this morning. pic.twitter.com/6Skm7JSzRJ
— FabrinoKofficiel (@Fabianooficial) April 21, 2022
In addition, “the government of the Ivanovo region has reported that after a fire at the Dmitrievsky Chemical Plant in Kineshma, there is no risk of chemical leakage,” a city report assures.
At the same time, on Thursday, April 21, a military research center in Tver, 160 km from Moscow, was the scene of a violent fire. Six people died in the accident, it said in relief, quoted by Russian press agencies. Twenty were injured.
Russia: Air Defense Research Center building caught fire around 11:00 am at Afanasy Nikitin Embankment in Tver. The cause of the fire is determined. There are people injured.
Contact details: 56.86624, 35.90691
Visualization: https://t.co/CvaKPR0qSN pic.twitter.com/YxopnoI8g8— Rebecca Rambar (@RebeccaRambar) April 21, 2022
According to the Russian news agency TASS, the fire could be due to the building’s dilapidated electrical installation.