Washington: A massive fire broke out at an aerospace research institute in Tver, northwest of Moscow. Another fire at a munitions factory in Perm, more than 1,100 kilometers (680 mi) to the east. And fires broke out at two different oil depots in Bryansk, near Belarus.
Coincidence, or a sign that Ukrainians or their supporters are carrying out a campaign of sabotage inside Russia to punish Moscow for invading their country?
Since the April 21 fire at the Central Research Institute of the Aerospace Defense Forces in Tver, which killed at least 17 people, social media has jumped at every report of a fire somewhere in Russia – notably At a sensitive location – as an indication that the country is under covert attacks.
No one is claiming responsibility, but analysts say that at least some incidents, particularly in Bryansk, point to a possible attempt by Kyiv to bring war to its invaders.
In a post on Telegram, Mykhailo Podolik, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, called the fire “divine intervention.”
“Large fuel depots burn out from time to time … for various reasons,” he wrote. “Karma is a cruel thing.”
In a vast country like Russia, a fire in a remote factory or building usually doesn’t raise eyebrows.
But since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, more than a dozen blasts noted by people documenting the war have drawn heavy attention on social media, amid fears that the arson by Ukrainians was an act of terror. Solid campaign.
Russia’s Far East late last month—at an airbase north of Vladivostok and at a coal plant on Sakhalin—also raised suspicion.
And on Wednesday a massive fire broke out at a chemical plant in Dzerzhinsk, east of Moscow.
“Russian saboteurs against Putin continue their heroic work,” said Ukrainian racecar driver Igor Sushko, who regularly posts photos and videos of alleged acts of sabotage inside Russia to Twitter – but no evidence Let’s say they were intentional.
Another Zelensky adviser, Oleksiy Erestovich, was similarly opaque to The New York Times, noting that Israel never admits to its covert attacks and assassinations.
“We don’t confirm, and we don’t deny,” he said.
War analysts believe that the hell in Bryansk, affecting oil-sending facilities to Europe, was intentional and war-bound.
The anonymous analysts behind the “Ukraine Weapons Tracker”, a Twitter account that posted detailed accounts with videos supporting the attacks from both sides, said they had received “credible” information that the Bryansk fire was carried out by Ukrainian Byraker drones. result of the attacks.
“If true, this story again shows the ability of Ukrainian forces to launch attacks into Russian territory using long-range assets,” he wrote.
“I think it was probably a Ukrainian attack, but we can’t be sure,” another war analyst Rob Lee told The Guardian.
In addition there have been several apparent shelling by helicopters and drones and obvious acts of sabotage against infrastructure in Kursk and Belgorod Oblasts on the Ukrainian border, close to fighting.
The governors of Belgorod and Kursk have blamed both the fire and destruction of infrastructure such as railway bridges on the attackers and the attackers of Ukraine.
The April 1 attack on the Belgorod fuel depot, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel, “was the result of an airstrike from two helicopters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that entered Russian territory at low altitude.”
“Nothing that would confirm Ukrainian sabotage, except for the fact that many of the fires hit strategic/military targets,” said Philips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
Such attacks “definitely appear to be a part of their strategy,” he said.
Pentagon officials have said Russian forces inside Ukraine are beset by weak supply chains, and attacks on their infrastructure will further stifle their war effort.
But US officials would not comment on whether deep inside Russia, there is an active campaign to sabotage targets directly related to the invasion.