Ukraine says it blew up railway in eastern Russia

1st December 2023, 09:15 MSTShare

By Jessica Parker in KyivBBC News

Ukrainian official

Ukraine’s security service has blown up a rail connection deep inside Russia, a senior official has told the BBC.

Successive explosions are said to have happened on trains running first through a tunnel and then on a bridge in Russia’s far east.

Russia has reportedly begun an inquiry into a “criminal case of terrorism” after the attacks on the Baikal Amur line running to the border with China.

The extent of the damage has not been verified by the BBC.

Ukrainian sources said that the intention was to “disable” an important piece of infrastructure that the Russians sometimes use for military purposes.

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After the first incident in the Severomuysky tunnel, on Wednesday evening, Russian railway officials said that crew had noticed smoke in a fuel tank and the train was stopped.

At 15km, Severnomuysky is the longest railway tunnel in Russia and lies in the region of Buryatia, north of Mongolia.

A senior Ukrainian official told the BBC that the freight train had in fact exploded in the tunnel.

The Russians then fell into the “trap” – claimed the official – of using an alternative bridge route.