Russia | An act of “sabotage” recognized for the first time

For the first time since the start of the war, a Russian official has deplored an act of “sabotage” committed on Russian soil by one or more unknown pro-Ukrainians, ending weeks of speculation after a series of explosions and unexplained fires.

Nicolas Berube
The Press

damaged railway bridge

Teams of workers were busy this week repairing a strategic railway bridge in the Kursk region of western Russia. The bridge collapsed on Sunday following an act of “sabotage”, according to Russian authorities: Kursk region governor Roman Starovoit said the bridge was destroyed by unidentified assailants. The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top state investigative agency, has opened a criminal investigation into what it described as a “terrorist act”, according to The Associated Press. The bridge is about 80 km from the border with Ukraine, on a key rail link used to supply Russian troops fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Fire near Moscow

The collapse of this bridge is only the latest in a series of unexplained events that have occurred in recent days in Russia. Near Moscow on Monday, a violent fire ravaged the gigantic 34,000 square meter warehouse of the pro-Kremlin publishing house Prosveshcheniye, one of Russia’s largest textbook printers. A few days earlier, the publishing house had made headlines after announcing that it would in future remove all references to Ukraine and Ukrainians from new history, literature and geography textbooks used by millions of Russian pupils.

Explosion in Belgorod

On Sunday, a powerful explosion was reported in Tomarovka, Belgorod region, Russia, near the Ukrainian border. The region’s governor confirmed that a fire had broken out at a facility belonging to Russia’s Defense Ministry, possibly an ammunition depot. For the past few days, noises of explosions and loud noises have been reported, especially at night, on social networks by residents of Belgorod.

From defense to attack

“The sabotage is taking place on Russian territory. Is it done by Ukrainians who crossed the border? Or is it done by sympathizers within Russia itself? asks Christian Leuprecht, associate professor of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University. “If we look at what has been going on for about 10 days, we see that the Ukrainians are able to attack the supply lines used by the Russian army on Russian territory. This is obviously a very important aspect for the Ukrainians, because Russian logistics go through the rails. As their country is so vast, Russians are very dependent on rail transport, ”continues the professor. “It also reinforces the idea that the Ukrainians are not only defending themselves: they are also increasingly able to attack,” explains Christian Leuprecht.

“Creative Operators”

“Imagine your job is to protect Russian infrastructure targets against highly motivated creative operators who look like Russians, speak Russian and, in many cases, probably have Russian passports…” writes Dmitry Grozoubinski, analyst and ex -Australian diplomat, on Twitter, about the difficulty for Russian officials to protect strategic infrastructure on their territory against sabotage.

Russia targets rails and grain in Ukraine

The Russian army in Ukraine also aims to cut off and harm rail transport. On Wednesday, Ukrainian media reported that the Russian army had launched missiles at the city center of Dnipro, a city of one million inhabitants located in the center-east of the country, and would have targeted in particular the lines of road of iron. Other explosions were reported in Cherkassy and Zaporizhya. The day before, the Russian forces had bombarded the railroad of Volovets and Lviv, in the west of Ukraine, while they had reached by missile on May 2 a grain warehouse in Dnipro.