Explosion derails train carrying fertilizer near Moscow, sabotage attack by Ukraine suspected

Matt Jackson
Express
Sun, 12 Nov 2023 07:25 UTC

© AP

A Russian train derailed some 130 miles from Moscow

A Russian cargo train crashed off the tracks following a suspected "sabotage attack".

A major explosion is said to have destroyed tracks in the Ryazan region, around 130 miles southeast of Moscow. The Mirror reports the train was carrying a white powder cargo.

It is however unclear what the cargo is. Officials said the 19 carriages were transporting "mineral fertiliser".

Comment: Russia is one of the world's largest exporters of chemical fertilizers - the West has been critically reliant on those supplies for many years now - and so it's likely that this is indeed fertilizer. It's unlikely Russia would ship anything of critical significance without a military guard.

It was suspected that the attack was either by Ukrainians operatives in Russia, or Russian partisans sympathetic to Kyiv.

It came shortly after kamikaze drone attacks on a Russian gunpowder plant and a factory making Iskander-M and other missiles. The rail incident was quickly labelled "sabotage" by the authorities. It appeared that this specific train had been targeted.

CCTV footage is said to have caught the sound of a loud explosion. Russian Railways said the crash was "as a result of interference by unauthorised persons in the operation of railway transport".

The carriages were thrown off the line at 7.12am local time, near the town of Rybnoye. The driver's assistant sustained minor injuries, and an ambulance was called.

A report said: "There is no threat to the environment from the carriage derailment."

A criminal investigation is now said to be underway.

Last week Vladimir Putin staged a "massive drill" simulating a "nuclear strike" on the West. The mass-scale exercises involved the launch of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

Comment: Sabotage incidents on Russian territory, ostensibly the sole work of the Kiev-junta, are highly likely being facilitated and directed by the West, and these attacks have been ongoing, and increasing in number and scope, since at least the beginning of the West's proxy war in Ukraine.

Notably, over in the West, there has also been a spike in suspected sabotage incidents, including train derailments, explosions at industrial facilities, and, in particular, food plant fires, however the authorities have not blamed external actors, and instead there's reason to believe that these are in fact the work of internally connected factions:

• Huge fire as 40-car train hauling hazardous substances derails in Minnesota city, Barge carrying toxic methanol spills 1,400 tons into Ohio river
• Huge fire erupts at grain silos at French Atlantic port, follows explosions of silos in Turkey, Brazil, in last 2 weeks