A massive drone attack on Ukraine by Russia on Wednesday caused an earthquake-sized explosion at a major arsenal in the Tver region, forcing the evacuation of a nearby town, according to war bloggers and some media reports.
Unconfirmed videos and images on social media showed a huge fireball rising into the night sky, and multiple explosions across a lake about 380 km (240 miles) west of Moscow.
NASA satellites detected intense heat sources emanating from an area of about 14 square kilometers (5 square miles) at the site in the morning, and earthquake monitoring stations detected what sensors said was a small earthquake in the area.
“The enemy attacked an ammunition depot in the Toropets area,” said Yuri Podolyaka, a Ukrainian-born and pro-Russian military blogger.
“Anything that can burn there is already burning (and exploding).”
There is no information about any casualties.
Russian state media has previously reported that a large stockpile of conventional weapons was found at the blast site. State media, now subject to military censorship laws, remained silent in its reporting on Wednesday.
Igor Rudenya, the governor of the Tver region, said a Ukrainian drone had been shot down, a fire had broken out and some residents were being evacuated. He did not say what was burning.
One woman told Reuters that her family members had been evacuated from Toropets.
“There was an explosion and a fire,” the woman said, giving her first name as Irina.
A source in Ukraine’s SBU state security service told Reuters that the drone strike destroyed a warehouse storing missiles, guided bombs and artillery ammunition. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian government.
Russia and Ukraine reported dozens of enemy drone attacks along their border overnight, as Russian troops advance into eastern Ukraine.
Big explosion
According to George William Herbert of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, the size of the main explosion shown in unverified social media videos was consistent with the detonation of 200–240 tons of high explosives.
The Toropets chatroom on Russian social media site VK was flooded with messages of support from other parts of the country and offers of help to those fleeing the city.
Some people were asking if the buildings at specific addresses were still standing.
One woman wrote, “People, does anyone know what happened to Kudino village??? They told me there is nothing left in our house.”
Another woman replied: “It’s terrible there.” Kudino is a village located 4.5 km (2.8 miles) northeast of Toropets.
Some war bloggers questioned how drones could carry out such large explosions in a place that is considered highly secured.
According to a 2018 RIA state news agency report, Russia was building an arsenal to store missiles, ammunition and explosives in the 1,000-year-old town of Toropets, which has a population of just over 11,000.
The facility could protect warheads from missiles and even a small nuclear attack, then-Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov told RIA in 2018. Bulgakov was arrested earlier this year on corruption charges. He has denied the charges.
“This (concrete facilities) ensures their reliable and safe storage, protects them from air and missile attacks, and even from the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion,” RIA quoted Bulgakov as saying at the time.
Some Russians expressed their anger on chat groups.
One woman posted, “Why wasn’t the ammunition underground?! What are you doing???? In Kudino, houses were blown up! Why is the forest burning and there is no one there… what kind of negligence is this!!!!”
Russia reported its air defense units destroyed 54 drones launched against five Russian regions overnight, but did not mention Tver. Ukraine said it shot down 46 of the 52 drones launched by Moscow overnight and that Russia used three guided air missiles that did not reach their targets.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
