Ukraine-Russia war latest: Multiple bridges collapse across Russia as saboteurs target Putin’s rail network
At least seven people have been killed and dozens more injured after bridges collapsed in separate incidents across Russia, causing trains to derail.
The seven people died and a further 69 were wounded when a highway bridge collapsed onto railway tracks, derailing an approaching train in the Bryansk region late on Saturday, Russian officials said.
Russia’s Railways initially blamed the collapse in the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, on “illegal interference in the operation of transport”, in a likely reference to Ukrainian saboteurs, but the Telegram post was later removed.
Prominent Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov, who uses the name War Gonzo, called it “sabotage”.
Both reports could not be independently verified. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
A second bridge collapsed hours later when a freight train was crossing a bridge in the Kursk region early on Sunday, according to a local governor, causing a similar derailment.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Sunday that the two bridges collapsed due to explosions.
In a third A prominent Ukrainian partisan group claimed responsibility for an attack on relay systems in occupied Donetsk oblast that stopped movement on a new Russian rail line.
Meanwhile, hundreds of towns were under evacuation orders in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, where Russian forces are focusing their attacks, as Ukrainian officials warned Moscow could be preparing a new offensive there.
Ukrainian officials this week warned of a potential new Russian offensive in the northeast. A State Border Guard Service spokesperson said on Thursday that Russia had amassed “sufficient forces” in the neighbouring Kursk region to launch an incursion, the Kyiv Independent reported.
