Ukraine says it has seriously damaged a railway bridge in Russia’s Samara region. The railway line was used to transport military material. According to Russian information, train traffic has been suspended.
According to Russian information, a railway bridge was damaged in an explosion in the southwestern Russian region of Samara on the Volga. The regional railway company said the incident was caused by “the intervention of unauthorized persons”. Train traffic was stopped.
Ukrainian military intelligence agency HUR said it had disabled a railway bridge over the Chapayevka River in Russia’s Samara region. Accordingly, part of the bridge’s structure was damaged by an explosion at around 6:00 a.m. (local time, 3:00 a.m. CET).
Russia used the railway line “to transport military material, in particular explosives, which were manufactured at the Polimer factory in the city of Chapayevsk,” the HUR explained. The bridge will be out of service for “a long period of time,” the intelligence agency added.
Apparently no injuries
According to the Russian railway company, there were no injuries. An explosive device damaged a pillar of the railway bridge over the Chapayevka River on the section between the city of Chapayevsk and the suburb of Zvezda, the state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency services.
“Rail traffic on this section is currently suspended,” the local railway company said. According to Tass, the area around the bridge was cordoned off by security forces. Russian authorities initially did not provide any information about the cause of the incident.
Explosives production in chemical factory
Chapayevsk is an industrial city with around 70,000 inhabitants. The most important company in the city is a chemical factory that also produces explosives. Chapayevsk is about 1,000 kilometers from Ukraine, against which Russia has been waging its war of aggression for more than two years.
Russia has reported a series of attacks on its industrial and logistics infrastructure in recent months, which it blamed on Ukraine.