The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has carried out two sabotage operations against Russian fuel trains in the Buryat region of Russia’s Far East, a source in a military establishment in Kyiv told France Presse on Friday, while Russian newspaper Kommersant wrote, according to Reuters, Russian investigators have determined that Wednesday’s train fire in Russia’s longest rail tunnel was the result of a “terrorist act” carried out by unidentified criminals.

Devastating Ukrainian strikes on railway infrastructure in SiberiaPhoto: shot from Twitter

The first shelling was carried out on the night of Wednesday to Thursday in the Bessolovsky tunnel in the Republic of Buryatia, where four explosive devices went off when a fuel train was passing, then a second sabotage was carried out on an alternative railway, where traffic was diverted after the first sabotage, a source from Kyiv. It claims that the explosion in the second diversion was triggered when the fuel train was “crossing the 35-metre bridge”, i.e. Devil’s Bridge. Thus, Kyiv seeks to decommission the railway line that connects China and Mongolia, reports the same source quoted by AFP, reports Agerpres.

Meanwhile, Russian investigators determined that Wednesday’s arson of a train in the Baikal-Amur tunnel in the Buryat region, a 15.3-kilometer tunnel, was the result of a terrorist act committed by unidentified persons, Kommersant reports, citing a source in the investigation. According to this source, the explosives appear to have been placed under the train and detonated after entering the tunnel.

Baza, a Telegram channel close to the Russian special services, wrote on Friday about the sabotage that caused the explosion of two trains in Buryatia. This channel confirms the version of the Ukrainian source about the presence of two terrorist attacks, but not the fact that during the second sabotage, the explosives went off when the train was passing through the Chertovsky Bridge. During the second sabotage, six fuel wagons were set on fire, Baza channel reports.

After the explosion in the Baikal-Amur tunnel, the railway tracks were seriously damaged, and the fuel that leaked from the cars flooded the tunnel, reports the same Telegram channel. He also notes that 14 wagons were removed from the tunnel after being set on fire, but there are still wagons that cannot be removed yet.

According to the Russian Railways, on the reserve route, which was the target of the second sabotage, rail transport is running as usual, but this one is longer.

Kyiv has claimed numerous attacks on Russian territory since the beginning of the war, which was launched by Russia in February 2022, but this is the first time that Ukrainian special services have carried out such operations thousands of kilometers from the front line.

The special services in Kyiv are increasingly turning to such sabotage as tactics of asymmetric warfare with the aim of disrupting the logistical support of the Russian army, while the Ukrainian army’s counteroffensive did not yield results, and now Russian troops have gone on the offensive in separate sections of the front.

In addition to attacks on Russian facilities in the rear, such as ammunition depots, strategic bridges (for example, the sabotage of the Crimean bridge), command centers, air bases or railway lines, attacks were also carried out on occupied Ukrainian territories. Russia and even on Russian territory who killed Russian officials or supporters of the Kremlin, such as the death of a famous Russian military blogger in an explosion in St. Petersburg or the murder of Daria Dugina, the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a Russian nationalist writer close to the Kremlin.

The wife of the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence (GRU) Kyryll Budanov, whom Moscow considers the mastermind of some of these sabotages, was poisoned last week with heavy metals, which Kyiv did not provide details on but blamed. Russian special services

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