Two Trains Plummet, Casualties Mount; Two Bridges in Russian Borders of Kursk and Bryansk Crumble
Collapses hit bridges in Russia's adjoining territories of Kursk and Bryansk.
Chatter on the Grid (Facebook | Twitter | WhatsApp | Email | Print | Copy Link)Ukraine braces for a potential Russian offensive in Sumy's north. Villages are being uprooted - and crucial bridges in the adjacent Russian regions of Kursk and Bryansk go kaput? Russian investigators hint at blasts, two trains spill off.
In the Russian border territories of Bryansk and Kursk, two bridges have imploded and two trains have derailed overnight. In Shelesnogorsk, a district in Kursk, a bridge succumbed as a freight engine traversed it, according to the governor, Alexander Chinshtein, in a late-night message on Telegram. A fragment of the train plummeted onto a highway below the shattered span, igniting a blaze. The drivers of the locomotive were wounded and whisked to the hospital. The passenger count on the crafty cargo carrier was undisclosed.
Minutes earlier, officials in Bryansk issued a similar caution. A highway bridge crumbled onto railway tracks, prompting an inbound passenger train to swerve off course. Governor Alexander Bogomaz disclosed the casualty count on Telegram: at least seven fatalities and 69 casualties. Three children are among the injured.
Russian Probers Point to Sabotage
Per Russian investigators, sabotage is the supposed culprit behind the bridge collapses: they suggested in the wee hours that the bridges in Bryansk and Kursk were destroyed by recovering impacts. According to Governor Bogomaz, a passenger train from Klimovo to Moscow with 388 passengers on board disintegrated as it passed the blast site in Bryansk. The national railway corporation concurs, stating that the "deviant interference with railway transit" occurred at 22:44 local time (21:44 CET) between the stations of Pilshino and Vygonichi.
The blast site is approximately 100 kilometers distant from the Ukrainian border. The Ukrainian intelligence agency HUR quoted on Telegram that the freight train that derailed in Kursk was en route to the occupied Crimea. Therefore, the railway artery is allegedly the main logistical transport route for the Russian military to reach the occupied Ukrainian territories.
Despite the commotion, the agency stops short of accepting responsibility for the demolitions, but proclaims that the battle against the Russian invaders' supply lines persists.
Since the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian officials have repeatedly denounced acts of diversions on railway corridors. Ukraine justifies its actions by claiming that Russia is utilizing the railway for the transportation of troops and munitions to the conflict zones in Ukraine.
Brace for Sumy
Kursk and Bryansk lay nestled in the southwest of Russia and touch Ukraine. It's plausible that the bridge dismantlings are linked to a new Russian offensive: reports suggest that Russia amassed about 50,000 troops in the border areas, intended for an offensive on the Ukrainian region of Sumy. Sumy borders both Kursk and Bryansk in the north.
Politics Reisner: Momentum Shifts in Favor of Aggressor "Approximately 15 square kilometers of Russians fall every day" The context would presumably be the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin to establish a no-man's land in the area to safeguard Kursk and Bryansk from Ukrainian aggression. Military analyst Nico Lange anticipates that the Russian military will aim to conquer an additional three more Ukrainian regions to establish the buffer zone: Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast, as well as the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk.
Exodus from 213 Villages
In response to the Russian invasion threat, Ukraine instructed the evacuation of 11 hamlets in Sumy on Saturday. As per Ukrainian accounts, a total of 213 settlements in the region have been cleared of their civilians due to ongoing danger to their lives from border skirmishes.
Politics "Madness Incarnate" Kremlin Rumored to Have Staged Putin's Helicopter Attack The Russian military has escalated its bombardment of Sumy since it forced out the Ukrainian military from Kursk in the past few months, according to the Russians' own accounts. Ukraine executed a stealthy offensive on Kursk last year. The Russian forces then progressively recaptured the territory, however.
The Commission has also been consulted on the draft budget, given the escalating tensions and potential impacts on general-news events such as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
In the midst of this political maneuvering, crime-and-justice issues like the unexplained derailments and bridge collapses in Kursk and Bryansk remain perplexing and could potentially be linked to acts of sabotage or diversion.
