‘They fell into the trap’

A double train explosion on a key railway in Russia’s Far East was reportedly orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence

On the night of November 29, a train car caught fire while traveling through the Severomuysky Tunnel on the Baikal–Amur Mainline railroad (BAM) in Russia’s Republic of Buryatia. Official sources in Russia have not reported the cause of the incident; Ukrainian media, however, citing sources in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), have reported that the explosion was a Ukrainian intelligence operation. CNN, citing its own SBU sources, also reported that the agency was behind the blast.

After the fire, Russian Railways, Russia’s state-owned railway company, announced that the other trains scheduled to go through the tunnel had been rerouted. Soon after that, however, Russian Telegram channels and Ukrainian media reported that another train had exploded on the detour route. Exactly when the second explosion occurred is unclear, but according to SBU sources who spoke to Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Suspilne, an explosive device was planted on the bypass bridge and detonated when the train was passing over it. The Ukrainian outlet Hromadske and BBC News Ukrainian also reported this version of events, with the BBC quoting one of its sources as saying the second train “fell into the SBU’s trap.”

An article about the blast published Thursday by news outlet Ukrainska Pravda called the BAM “essentially the only significant railroad route between Russia and China,” noting that it’s used to transport military supplies. Sources who spoke to Suspilne added that the explosion was the “second step in the SBU’s special operation” to disable the key thoroughfare. “Russia’s intelligence agencies need to get used to the fact that our people are everywhere. Even in distant Buryatia,” a source told Ukrainska Pravda after the second explosion.

After the first explosion, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a terrorism case against “unidentified persons,” according to Kommersant. “Preliminary findings indicate that the tanker fire resulted from the detonation of an unidentified explosive device that was presumably located beneath the railcar,” said the newspaper’s source.

The Telegram channel Baza reported that the tunnel fire left one tanker car completely destroyed and two others with punctures. According to the channel Mash, a makeshift explosive device was found at the site of the blast. The bridge explosion, meanwhile, left four tankers completely burned and two damaged by fire, Baza said, without citing any sources.

It’s unclear whether anybody was injured in the fires. After the tunnel fire, the East Siberian Transport Prosecutor’s Office announced it was conducting an investigation into a “train car fire,” adding that nobody was injured. Neither the Russian authorities nor Russian Railways have commented on the second explosion.