An explosion in a Russian region bordering Ukraine derailed a freight train on Monday, the local governor said in a social media post, adding there were no casualties.
Pictures shared on social media showed several tank carriages laying on their side and dark grey smoke billowing into the air at the site of the derailment in the Bryansk region.
A Russian freight train derailed Monday in the western region of Bryansk bordering Ukraine after an “explosive device” detonated on the rail tracks, the local governor said.
The apparent attack came a day after a Ukrainian strike killed four people in a Russian village in the Bryansk region and as Kyiv prepared for a widely expected counter-offensive.
“An unidentified explosive device went off, as a result of which a locomotive of a freight train derailed,” Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram.
There were no casualties, he added.
Bogomaz said the device went off “on the 136th kilometer” of the railroad between regional hub Bryansk and the town of Unecha, towards the border with Ukraine.
Russian Railways said the incident took place on Monday at 10:17 am local time between the town of Unecha and the village of Rassukha in the southwestern corner of the region — some 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian forces destroys rail link between Belarus and Ukraine
Chairman of the State Border Committee of Belarus Anatoly Lappo said Sunday that Ukrainian forces have destroyed nearly all bridges and mined the roads along the Belarus border.
“Today, almost all border bridges have been blown up, and automobile and railway border routes are completely mined,” Lappo said as quoted by Belarusian TV.
The official has also stressed that Ukrainian forces have fortified the border “to the point of putting anti-tank mines in three rows on the roads.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Lappo unmasked that the troops Kiev has sent to the border are “not border guards”.
“We are under pressure, they are aiming at our border guards, sometimes they shoot in the air, constant aerial reconnaissance is being carried out,” he added.
It is worth noting that Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has earlier reported that its ambassador to Belarus was summoned and given an official note stating that “Ukraine is planning to conduct a strike on the territory of Belarus.”
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claimed that the accusation was “completely false,” and that it could be part of a Russian plan to “stage a provocation and further accuse” Kiev.
On his account, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko accused Ukraine earlier this week of massing tens of thousands of soldiers near the border. While Lukashenko initially allowed Russian troops to enter Ukraine from its territory, he stated last week that Belarus’ role in the conflict is limited to self-defense and denying Ukraine the ability to “shoot Russians in the back from Belarus’ territory.”
This comes two days after a truck was blown up on the motorway section of the Crimean Bridge from the Taman Peninsula, causing seven fuel tanks of a train traveling to the Crimean peninsula to go up in flames.
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