In Buryatia, a tank caught fire in the longest tunnel of the BAM; Baza explained this as a cable short circuit, and Ukrainian media explained it as a SBU operation

In the Severomuysky railway tunnel, which is part of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, a freight train car, a tank with diesel fuel, caught fire at night. This was reported by the press service of Russian Railways and transport investigators of the Investigative Committee.

The explosion and smoke in the tunnel occurred on November 29 at 22:20 ( GMT +8 ) on the stretch between Itykit and Okushikan stations - four kilometers from the urban village of Taksimo in the north of Buryatia. According to Baza , a total of three tanks were damaged, and one burned out completely. There were no casualties.

Investigators do not name the cause of the tank explosion, but are conducting an investigation under the article on violation of safety requirements (263 of the Criminal Code), which does not imply sabotage. Baza , without disclosing the source of the data, explains the fire as a short circuit in the cable network.

At the same time, several Ukrainian publications, including Suspilne , Babel , and Ukrayinska Pravda , citing sources in law enforcement agencies, called the fire a “special operation of the SBU.” A total of four explosive devices went off in the tunnel, they say.

The length of the Severomuysky tunnel exceeds 15 kilometers, which makes it the longest tunnel both as part of the BAM and in Russia. Before its opening in 2003, trains followed a bypass line with lower capacity. Ukrainian publications call the tunnel “virtually the only serious route of railway communication between the Russian Federation and China,” which Russia uses “including for military supplies.”

“Train traffic was not interrupted; it was organized along a bypass section with a slight increase in travel time,” Russian Railways says.