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Russian authorities are investigating social media reports of an explosion at a military facility in the Saratov region in central Russia, the region’s governor said.
“Information about an incident at a military facility is being checked by law enforcement agencies,” the Saratov region governor wrote online, acknowledging that reports of a “loud bang and flash” in the area were circulating on social media.
The videos, shared by channels on the Telegram messaging app, appeared to show an explosion taking place in the early hours of today. Some commentators have attributed it to a Ukrainian drone attack on a local air base, but provided no evidence and Kyiv has not commented on the incident.
Around the same time this morning, the state-run RIA news agency reported that an explosion had killed three people on an air base near the central Russian city of Ryazan. It said the explosion took place after a fuel truck caught fire at the airfield, but did not say what caused the fire itself.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has been informed about the incidents, a Kremlin spokesman said, and that the president regularly receives information about everything that is happening from the appropriate services. He did not provide any further information and directed reporters to the defence ministry.
Ryazan and Saratov are located far inside central Russia, each at least 450km from the border with Ukraine. If the incidents prove to be the product of aerial attacks, they would be by far the deepest such strikes inside Russia or Russian-held territory so far, after Ukraine hit the Saki air base in the Crimean peninsula.
Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed, today, its air defence systems had knocked out most of the latest barrage of incoming Russian missiles.
Russia has been targeting the country’s electricity infrastructure as winter approaches, but Ukraine’s defences have been bolstered in recent weeks by the supply of modern surface-to-air missiles from the US and Europe.
In a video address to the nation, Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said, “Air defence forces shot down most of the missiles.”
“I want to thank our air defence forces, our energy sector workers and our people . . . Energy sector workers are already at work to restore power,” Zelenskyy added.
Regional officials reported that air defence systems had successfully downed dozens of incoming missiles. But some hit their intended targets.
“Ukraine is experiencing the eighth mass missile attack by a terrorist country,” Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state power grid company, said in a statement this afternoon.
“Unfortunately, there are already hits on energy infrastructure facilities and related emergency power outages,” the company added.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Zelenskyy’s administration, said two people were killed by a missile strike in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. Officials in the Black Sea port town of Odesa said the water supply was knocked out after missiles hit infrastructure. Oleksander Vilkul, mayor of Zelenskyy’s home town, Kryviy Rih, in the centre of Ukraine, said missile strikes had knocked out power in parts of the city.
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