Partisans? ‘Explosive Device’ Destroys Russian Fuel Train Near Ukraine Border

russia train
Russian Social Media
Oliver JJ Lane

A Russian freight train hauling fuel was derailed and partially consumed in fire on Monday morning, with an “explosive device” blamed and involvement by Ukrainian partisans the subject of speculation.

An “explosive device” went off and caused a freight train to derail in Western Russia on Monday, a peninsula of Russian territory between Belarus and Ukraine. A statement published by the Russian government announced that “An unidentified explosive device went off at the 136th kilometer of the Bryansk-Unecha railroad in the Unecha District, derailing the locomotive of a freight train. No casualties have been reported”.

State media said police believe two males are suspected of setting the bomb and a manhunt is underway following the pair having been caught on security camera nearby. The crash took place around 50 miles away from the Ukrainian border.

There has been a proliferation of images and video captured at the scene of the derailment posted to Russian social media channels, showing the distinctive outline of a pair of 1960s-era Soviet-designed diesel-electric locomotives which, prior to the crash, were double-heading the large freight train. Burning tankers are clearly visible in some captures.

Given the damage to the rails from the explosion and the remains of a locomotive standing at right-angles over the track, it seems likely the railway will be closed to traffic for some time.

Ukraine’s 24 Kanal reports the train was 60 cars long and that the locomotives and first seven wagons left the track.

While no official Russian explanation has been given as to why an “explosive device” might have been planted to destroy a rail line and derail a train of strategic materials, the blast has been the subject of intense speculation and claims in Ukraine. Many have compared the blast to a series of recent other explosions in Russia, while others have outright claimed the involvement of Ukrainian partisans.

The Ukrainian government has not claimed the attack yet.

Ukrainian news outlets and social media users have, however, deployed the war-born meme “бавовни” — ‘cotton’ — to describe the event. It is a Russian-Ukrainian-language pun to referring to homophones, propaganda, and information suppression is Russian media where outlets started to play down the frequency of unexplained explosions in the country when the war began. One outlet equates ‘cotton’ with “unpleasant incidents” laid for Russians by Ukrainian fighters.

One such ‘cotton’ event pro-Ukraine commentators have made frequent reference to is the giant blast at an oil reservoir in Crimea over the weekend, said to have been bombed with an exploding drone. Despite the magnitude of the fire and the loss of infrastructure and oil, Russia insisted the event would not hinder their fuel supplies.

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