The Russian mystery fires are a series of unusual fires and explosions that have occurred since the invasion of Ukraine, [1] [2] which have not been formally explained. [3] There have been many notable arson attacks on military recruitment offices in Russia since the beginning of the war, [4] and there has been speculation that some of the fires or explosions have been the result of sabotage efforts by Russian partisans [5] (such as Svoboda Rossii or Atesh partisan legion [6] ) or Ukrainian saboteurs. [7]
A "yellow" (medium) terrorist threat level was introduced [8] in Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod oblasts, as well as some districts of Voronezh Oblast, Krasnodar Krai, and northern Crimea. Starting from the end of March, a series of incidents and explosions were reported in border regions of Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, and Voronezh Oblasts. Russian officials reported mortar shelling, drone attacks, and helicopter gunship attacks allegedly coming "from the Ukrainian side". [ru 1] [9] [10]
The Ukrainian side refused to confirm or deny involvement in incidents at strategic locations. [11] There were allegations that some of the fires or explosions were the result of Ukrainian sabotage. [12] [13]
In May, a series of incidents on railway lines in Russia impeded the deployment of troops and military equipment to Ukraine; responsibility for these incidents was claimed by the Internet movement "Stop the Wagons" [ru 2] (a reference to the Russian anti-war slogan "Stop the War"). [ru 3] [14]
Location | Date | Facility | Deaths | Coordinates |
---|---|---|---|---|
Kstovo | 22 March 2022 | Oil depot [15] | ||
Belgorod | 1 April 2022 | Oil depot [11] | 1 | 50°35′29.8″N36°40′13.1″E / 50.591611°N 36.670306°E |
Belgorod region | 12 April 2022 | Railway bridge [16] | ||
Tver | 21 April 2022 | Central Research Institute of the Aerospace Defense Forces [17] | 7 | |
Kineshma | 21 April 2022 | Chemical plant [18] | ||
Korolyov, Moscow Oblast | 22 April 2022 | Industrial zone where many enterprises of the space and rocket industry are located [19] | ||
Barvikha | 23 April 2022 | Governor's residence in Moscow Region [20] | ||
Bryansk | 25 April 2022 | Fuel depot holding 5,000 tonnes of fuel. [21] 2nd Branch of Military Unit 55443–90. [22] | ||
Ussuriysk | 25 April 2022 | Military air base [23] | ||
Belgorod | 27 April 2022 | Ammunition depot [24] | ||
Moscow | 28 April 2022 | Fires and explosions on Moscow's Kustanayskaya street [25] | ||
Ilyinskoye | 30 April 2022 | GRES-2 power plant [26] | 52°1′26.3″N75°28′34.5″E / 52.023972°N 75.476250°E | |
Perm | 1 May 2022 | FKP gunpowder plant [27] | ||
Moscow | 3 May 2022 | "Warehouse of a pro-Kremlin publishing house". [28] | ||
Nizhny Novgorod | 4 May 2022 | Industrial zone [29] | ||
Nizhnevartovsk | 4 May 2022 | Military enlistment office [30] | ||
Kursk | 5 May 2022 | Unknown [31] | ||
Perm | 8 May 2022 | Aviation college [27] | ||
Dubovoye, Belgorod Oblast | 11 May 2022 | Unknown [32] | ||
Teysin, Amursky district | 12 May 2022 | Military installation [33] | ||
Berdsk | 17 May 2022 | Chemical plant [34] | ||
Zhukovsky | 21 May 2022 | Fire at the substation in TsAGI (aviation institute) [35] | ||
Moscow | 24 May 2022 | Saint Peter and Paul Church [36] [37] | ||
Moscow | 3 June 2022 | Grand Setun Plaza Building, business center with Pension Fund of Russia offices [38] | ||
Komsomolsk-on-Amur | 4 June 2022 | Rosgvardia (National Guard of the Russian Federation) building [39] | ||
Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod | 8 June 2022 | Rosatom (Nuclear) Institute of Digital Technologies [40] | ||
Sergiyev Posad | 8 June 2022 | Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant warehouse (optical, thermal & night-vision sighting systems) [41] | ||
Vladivostok | 8 June 2022 | Military enlistment office [42] | ||
Ust-Luga | 10 June 2022 | "Factor" timber terminal [43] owned by oligarch Ramis Deberdeyev | ||
near Gulevka | 11 June 2022 | Druzhba pipeline [44] | ||
Angarsk | 23 June 2022 | LPG station (liquefied petroleum gas station) [45] | 0 | |
Moscow | 3 July 2022 | Residential skyscraper [46] | ||
near Moscow | 3 August 2022 | e-commerce warehouse [47] | 1 | |
Volokolamsk | 12 September 2022 | Plastic chip depot warehouse [48] | ||
Novokuznetsk | 26 September 2022 | Steel plant owned by Putin ally Roman Abramovich [49] | 0 | |
Moscow | 9 October 2022 | Television and radio tower [50] | ||
Belgorod | 11 October 2022 | Electricity substation [51] | ||
Ryazan | 21 October 2022 | Gunpowder factory [52] | 16 | |
Saint Petersburg | 26 October 2022 | Warehouse [53] | 0 | |
Stalnoi Kon | 16 November 2022 | Oil depot [54] | 0 | |
near Saint Petersburg | 19 November 2022 | Gas pipeline [55] | 0 | |
Moscow | 21 November 2022 | Warehouse near three railway stations [56] | 5 | |
Angarsk | 27 November 2022 | Angarsk Petrochemical Plant (largest oil refinery in Russia) [57] | 0 | |
Surazh | 29 November 2022 | Oil storage tank [58] | 0 | |
Perm | 30 November 2022 | Thermal Power Plant #9 (roof of the turbine room) [59] | 0 | |
Khimki | 9 December 2022 | MEGA Khimki Shopping Centre, explosion and fire covering 18,000 square metres (190,000 sq ft) [60] [61] | 1 [60] | 55°54′40.1″N37°23′47.1″E / 55.911139°N 37.396417°E |
Barnaul | 9 December 2022 | Tyre manufacturing plant [62] | 0 | |
Moscow | 10 December 2022 | Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts [63] | 0 | 55°44′48.4″N37°36′11.5″E / 55.746778°N 37.603194°E |
Balashikha | 12 December 2022 | Shopping center [64] | 0 | 55°43′31″N37°59′14″E / 55.72528°N 37.98722°E |
Nizhnekamsk | 12 December 2022 | Synthetic rubber factory [65] | 0 | |
Saint Petersburg | 13 December 2022 | Machine-building plant [66] | 0 | |
Angarsk | 15 December 2022 | Angarsk Petrochemical Plant [67] | 2 | |
Vladivostok | 17 December 2022 | Confectionery factory warehouse [68] | 0 | |
Snezhinsk | 18 December 2022 | Shopping center [69] | 0 | |
Verkhnemarkovo, Irkutsk Oblast | 18 December 2022 | Oil and gas condensate field [70] | 0 | 57°20′14″N107°03′09″E / 57.33722°N 107.05250°E |
Kalinino, Chuvashia | 20 December 2022 | Gas pipeline [71] | 3 | |
Kurgan | 20 December 2022 | Kamaz auto service center [72] | 0 | |
Murmansk | 22 December 2022 | Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier [73] | 0 | |
Moscow | 23 December 2022 | Military base [74] | 0 | |
Murmansk | 24 December 2022 | Supply base [75] | 0 | |
Novosibirsk | 26 December 2022 | Warehouse [76] | ||
Saint Petersburg | 29 December 2022 | Warehouse [77] [78] | 0 | |
Kronstadt | 30 December 2022 | Oil tanker [79] | 0 | |
Rostov Nuclear Power Plant | 31 December 2022 | Transformer substation[ citation needed ] | 1 | |
Location | Date | Facility | Deaths | Coordinates |
---|---|---|---|---|
Novy Oskol | 3 January 2023 | Military facility [80] | ||
Saint Petersburg | 5 January 2023 | Agricultural machinery plant [81] | 2 | |
Moscow | 6 January 2023 | Foreign Ministry [82] | 0 | |
Barnaul | 8 January 2023 | Shopping center [83] | 0 | |
Bratsk | 9 January 2023 | Military enlistment office [84] [85] | 0 | |
Moscow | 10 January 2023 | Auto service [86] | 0 | |
Ust-Ilimsk, Irkutsk Oblast | 10 January 2023 | Sosnovaya Liniya timber mill [87] | 0 | |
Moscow | 11 January 2023 | Construction site [88] | 0 | |
Saint Petersburg | 12 January 2023 | Warehouse [89] | 0 | |
Manzherok, Altai Republic | 17 January 2023 | Hotel [90] | 0 | |
Angarsk | 21 January 2023 | Oil depot [91] | ||
Kirov | 25 January 2023 | Church [92] | 0 | |
Moscow | 28 January 2023 | Warehouse [93] | ||
Kstovo | 7 February 2023 | Oil refinery [94] | 0 | |
Novoshakhtinsk | 8 February 2023 | Oil refinery [95] | 0 | |
Yeremeytsevo, Yaroslavl Oblast | 13 February 2023 | Pipeline [96] | 0 | |
Krasnoyarsk | 13 February 2023 | Warehouse [97] | 0 | |
Yangiskain, Bashkortostan | 13 February 2023 | Livestock complex [98] | 0 | |
Moscow | 14 February 2023 | Car service station [99] | 0 | |
Kazan | 14 February 2023 | Rubber warehouse [100] | ||
Kolomna | 14 February 2023 | Warehouse [101] | ||
Magadan | 17 February 2023 | Truck warehouse [102] | ||
Ufa | 17 February 2023 | Chemical plant [103] | 0 | |
Krasnoyarsk | 22 February 2023 | Warehouse [104] | 0 | |
Moscow | 26 February 2023 | Textile plant [105] | 0 | |
Tuapse | 28 February 2023 | Oil terminal [106] | 0 | |
Saint Petersburg | 1 March 2023 | Warehouse [107] | 0 | |
Saint Petersburg | 2 March 2023 | Textile warehouse and office complex [108] | 1 | |
Vidnoye, Moscow Oblast | 5 March 2023 | Coke and gas works [109] | ||
Moscow | 7 March 2023 | Interior Ministry building [110] | ||
Kolyubakino, Moscow Oblast | 11 March 2023 | Plastic production facility [111] | 0 | |
Moscow | 11 March 2023 | Spas TV office building [112] | 0 | |
Odintsovo | 13 March 2023 | Warehouse[ citation needed ] | 0 | |
Rostov-on-Don | 16 March 2023 | FSB building [113] | 1 | |
Dolgoprudny | 18 March 2023 | Chemical plant [114] | 0 | |
Yaroslavl | 23 March 2023 | Yaroslavl Motor Plant [115] | 0 | |
Aramil, Sverdlovsk Oblast | 24 March 2023 | Research-and-production enterprise [116] | 0 | |
Aksay, Rostov Oblast | 25 March 2023 | Warehouse [117] | 0 | |
Pelym, Sverdlovsk Oblast | 30 March 2023 | Gas pipeline [118] | 0 | |
Moscow | 5 April 2023 | Defense ministry [119] | 0 | |
Voronezh | 7 April 2023 | Aircraft plant [120] | 0 | |
Nakhabino, Moscow Oblast | 10 April 2023 | Auto parts warehouse [121] [122] | 0 | |
Kazan | 16 April 2023 | Tank training ground [123] | 0 | |
Stavropol | 4 May 2023 | Concrete production plant [124] | 0 | |
Moscow | 4 May 2023 | Administrative building [125] | 0 | |
Odintsovo | 30 May 2023 | Paper warehouse [126] | 3 | |
Novocherkasskaya, Rostov Oblast | 14 June 2023 | Power station [127] | 0 | |
Voronezh | 24 June 2023 | Fuel depot [128] | 0 | |
Sergiyev Posad | 9 August 2023 | Warehouse [129] | 2 | |
Makhachkala, Dagestan | 14 August 2023 | Fuel station [130] [131] | 35 |
Original Russian terms
The Black Sea Fleet is the fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea Fleet, along with other Russian ground and air forces on the Crimean Peninsula, are subordinate to the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), commonly referred to by the exonym Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), is an Eastern Orthodox church in Ukraine.
Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk is a former Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who has lived in exile in Russia since September 2022 after being handed over to Russia in a prisoner exchange. Medvedchuk is a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Avdiivka is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The city is located in the centre of the oblast, just north of the regional centre, Donetsk. The large Avdiivka Coke Plant is located in Avdiivka. The city had a pre-war population of 31,392 ; but in October 2023, it was reported as 1,600 and then "just over 1,000", mostly living below ground level.
The Revolution of Dignity, also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution, took place in Ukraine in February 2014 at the end of the Euromaidan protests, when deadly clashes between protesters and state forces in the capital Kyiv culminated in the ousting of elected President Viktor Yanukovych, the return to the 2004 Constitution of Ukraine, and the outbreak of the 2014 Russo-Ukrainian War.
Sergey Vladimirovich Surovikin is a Russian army general who serves as head of the Coordinating Committee for Air Defence under the Council of Defence Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) since September 2023.
The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal is a Russian hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile. It has an estimated range of 460–480 km (290–300 mi) and a reported top speed of Mach 10. It can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads and can be launched by Tu-22M3 bombers or MiG-31K interceptors, also can be launched by modified Su-34 after Ukraine war. It is the first hypersonic weapon used.
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician and former actor who has been serving as the sixth president of Ukraine since 2019.
The Russian occupation of Kherson Oblast is an ongoing military occupation of Ukraine's Kherson Oblast by Russian forces that began on 2 March 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine as part of the southern Ukraine campaign. It was administrated under a Russian-controlled military-civilian regime until 30 September 2022, when it was illegally annexed to become an unrecognized federal subject of Russia.
Several attacks in mainland Russia, primarily in the Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod oblasts, have been reported since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022. Russia accused Ukraine of being responsible for these attacks.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia occupied vast portions of the territory of Ukraine, having already occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as well as the entire Autonomous Republic of Crimea since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2014. Partisan groups began to be organized in mid-2022. These groups have been involved in intelligence-gathering, sabotage, and assassinations. Much of their activity has taken place in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The battle of Huliaipole is an ongoing military conflict between the Armed Forces of Russia and the Armed Forces of Ukraine over the city of Huliaipole, in central Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Since the beginning of 2022, multiple unusual deaths of Russian businesspeople or high officials, sometimes including their family members, have occurred under what some sources suggest were suspicious circumstances.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces have launched several missile attacks over the city of Dnipro in Ukraine. These have led to dozens of fatalities and over a hundred injuries among the civilian population.
The National Republican Army is an alleged underground partisan group of Russians inside Russia working towards the violent overthrow of the Putin government. The group claims to be a member of the Irpin Declaration, an alleged alliance of anti-government Russian militant groups.
On 8 October 2022, at 6:07 a.m., a fire broke out on the Crimean Bridge as a result of an explosion of a bomb loaded onto a truck, which occurred on the road bridge, on the westbound vehicle lanes running from Russia to Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea. Two two-lane vehicular spans of the bridge collapsed into the water. Two adjacent eastbound lanes on a separate structure survived. The railway bridge was also significantly damaged by a railway tanker car that caught fire. Five people were killed, and the Investigative Committee of Russia launched an investigation.
Beginning in July 2022, a series of explosions and fires occurred on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula from where the Russian Army had launched its offensive on Southern Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Occupied since 2014, Crimea was a base for the subsequent Russian occupation of Kherson Oblast and Russian occupation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The Ukrainian government has not accepted responsibility for all of the attacks.
During the autumn and winter of 2022–2023, Russia launched waves of missile and drone strikes against energy infrastructure as part of its invasion of Ukraine. The strikes targeted civilian areas beyond the battlefield, particularly critical power infrastructure, which is considered a war crime. By the end of 2023, Russian forces launched about 7,400 missiles and 3,900 Shahed drone strikes against Ukraine according to Ukrainian military officials.
On 14 January 2023 at about 3:30 p.m., a Russian Kh-22 missile struck a nine-story residential building in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Naberezhna Peremohy St, 118, Sobornyi District in the right-bank part of the city, destroying one entrance and 236 apartments. On 19 January the official casualty rate was stated as 46 people killed and 80 injured and 11 people reported missing. 14 children were reported injured, and 39 inhabitants were rescued. The destruction left about 400 people homeless. The strike was part of months-long campaign of Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure that also had hit Dnipro.
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