Part of a train has derailed in the latest train derailment incident in Russia in recent weeks.
The independent Russian-language Telegram channel Astra on Monday posted a video of the smoldering wreckage of what it said was a derailed train in the town of Stary Oskol in the Belgorod region, on the border with Ukraine.
Citing local media reports, the channel said the incident occurred overnight near the Lebedinsky mining and processing plant and it was not known whether anyone was injured.
The day before, the same Telegram channel reported that nine wagons carrying grain had derailed in the town of Liski, located about 610 kilometers south of Moscow in the Voronezh region.
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The channel shared a video of the overturned carriages at the city’s railway station and said the incident was caused by a malfunctioning switch and had delayed five passenger trains.
She added that no one was injured and that the cause of the incident was under investigation, although security forces do not believe outside interference was a factor.
On July 9, a freight car derailed at Khovrino railway station in the Moscow region during shunting work, according to Russian media outlet Zaks.ru.
The station is part of the Oktyabrskaya railway network, which connects the Russian capital to the northwest. Three people were killed on June 26 when nine of the 14 carriages of a train derailed in the Komi republic in northern Russia.
About 40 people were injured in the incident, which Russian Railways said was likely caused by heavy rains that washed away part of the tracks, the Associated Press reported.
The train was traveling between Vorkuta and Novorossiysk and videos and images shared by state media showed carriages near the track and one carriage submerged in a river.
Astra also published footage of the aftermath of the freight car derailment at the Zapadnaya railway station in Novotroitsk, Orenburg region, 2,000 km east of Moscow. The media outlet said there were no casualties or environmental damage.
On June 9, five fuel tanks derailed near the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad Region, where one of Russia’s largest oil terminals is located, according to the Rozpartizan Telegram channel.
Ukraine has targeted Russian oil processing infrastructure with drone strikes for which it does not directly claim responsibility, although it has so far refrained from hitting oil export facilities.
There is so far no suggestion of Ukrainian involvement in Ust-Luga, but during Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, attacks on Russian trains were blamed on sabotage.
The National Resistance Center of Ukraine said Ukrainian partisans blew up a Russian train last October in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, disrupting the supply of ammunition and fuel to the Russian military.
In May 2023, rail traffic was suspended between the cities of Simferopol and Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea after a derailment that railway officials blamed on “external interference.” British defense officials said the incident disrupted deliveries of supplies and weapons to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
