In a startling revelation, Ukrainian media outlets reported on Friday that Ukraine's spy agency, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), orchestrated two consecutive explosions on a vital railroad line in Siberia, disrupting a key trade route between Russia and China. The attacks on the Baikal-Amur Mainline have raised concerns about Moscow's vulnerability amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
According to reports from Ukrainska Pravda and other sources, the SBU allegedly conducted a special operation targeting trains loaded with fuel on the Baikal-Amur Mainline. The railroad, running from southeastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean in the Russian Far East, plays a crucial role in facilitating trade between Russia and China.
Unnamed sources within Ukrainian law enforcement agencies were cited by the media, a common practice in claims of previous attacks in Russia. However, the SBU has not officially confirmed these reports.
The first explosion occurred early Thursday in the Severonomuisky tunnel in Buryatia, southern Siberia, hitting a tanker train and causing a fire that took hours to extinguish. The Severonomuisky tunnel, spanning 15.3 kilometers (9.5 miles), is the longest in Russia.
A second explosion followed hours later, targeting another fuel-laden train crossing a 35-meter (115-foot) high bridge across a deep gorge on a bypass route, as reported by Ukrainian news outlets.
Russian railways acknowledged the tunnel explosion but did not provide details on its cause. Kommersant, a Russian daily business newspaper, cited investigators suggesting that an explosive device was planted under one of the train's carriages.
Russian authorities have not commented on the second explosion. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have underscored their military and security agencies' capability to strike targets anywhere in Russia to counter Moscow's perceived aggression, claiming responsibility for previous attacks on Russian infrastructure.
In a related development, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Friday that it had detained a man accused of attacking a military airbase in western Russia with exploding drones in July and staging an explosion that derailed a cargo train in the same region last month. The FSB identified the suspect as a dual Russian-Italian citizen, alleging that he was recruited by Ukrainian military intelligence in Istanbul and underwent training in Latvia before returning to Russia. Ukrainian authorities have not immediately commented on this claim.