War arrives on Putin’s doorstep: Huge explosion tears through Russian defence plant near Moscow as drone attack targets the capital

• The blast tore through the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant in Sergiyev Posad, 46 miles northeast of Moscow. The plant make optical devices for the military
• Blast came after Moscow said it had downed two drones close to the capital

A Russian defence plant was being evacuated this morning after a major explosion at the site sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky, towering over nearby buildings.

It came hours after Moscow became the target of another drone attack overnight, with Russia saying it had shot down two Ukraine UAVs near the capital, in the latest in a string of attacks on and around the country’s capital in recent months.

The explosion at the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant also initially prompted reports of a drone strike, but this was quickly denied by Russian officials.

A huge mushroom cloud was seen over the plant in Sergiyev Posad, 46 miles northeast of Moscow. A witness said ‘the whole plant is in ruins’.

A total of 31 were wounded but a rising toll of casualties was feared, said governor Andrey Vorobyov, with 19 needing hospital treatment. Three are in a serious condition, reports said.

A Russian defence plant was being evacuated this morning after a major explosion at the site sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky, towering over nearby buildings (pictured)

The Zagorsk plant is understood to produce optical equipment for the Russian military, such as night-vision binoculars, as well as civilian optical devices.

Over a year ago, on June 8, 2022, the same plant experienced an unexplained fire – one of many unusual fires since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. The size of the explosion suggests it has experienced significantly greater damage today.

Rescuers were searching under the rubble of the plant on Wednesday.

The cause of the blast was not clear and is under investigation amid a string of Ukrainian drone and sabotage attacks around Russia, linked to Putin’s war.

A report said the whole town was ordered to evacuate after the blast.

‘It’s terrible, the whole plant is destroyed,’ said a witness. ‘I’m shocked. Imagine, we were just thrown back [by the blast] in the welding section. It’s just awful.’

Other witnesses suggested the site was destroyed by a drone strike, despite the denials from local officials.

‘Something flew in,’ an anonymous source said, according to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel. ‘First a whistle, then the light blinked and an explosion…’

A huge mushroom cloud was seen over the plant in Sergiyev Posad, 46 miles northeast of Moscow. A witness said ‘the whole plant is in ruins’

Locals were seen in footage from the area coming out to look at the huge plume of smoke

In addition to Wednesday morning’s explosion at the Zagorsk military plant, Russia said it had downed two drones – one near a major international airport, and another near the M-1 motorway that links the Russian capital to Minsk, Belarus

But in an apparent attempt to play down the suggestion that the blase was caused by an attack, local Russian official Sergei Pakhomov said: ‘The source of the detonation was a pyrotechnics warehouse, the premises for which were rented by one of the well-known companies in the city.

READ MORE: Putin’s junkyard war machines: Russia ‘deploys 1,500 rusting mothballed tanks from Siberian dump’ after suffering huge losses in Ukraine

‘The cause of the explosion is in violation of technological processes,’ he claimed.

The plant itself is one of the main developers and manufacturers of a wide range of observation devices, medical equipment for diagnosing and treating diseases of eye tissues and vessels, fluorographs and X-ray image intensifiers, as well as various photometric devices.

It is a leading enterprise for the development and serial production of binoculars and monoculars, and is believed to have links to Putin’s defence ministry.

Emergency services were working to evacuate the plant’s employees.

According to eyewitnesses, a fire broke out at the plant after the explosion, and ten houses close to the plant were damaged.

A video emerged later showing the moment of explosion, with shocked locals coming out of a nearby building to see the plume of smoke rising into the sky.

The blast came after Russia said it had shot two drones out of the sky around Moscow, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. 

Footage shows damaged buildings in the aftermath of Wednesday’s plant explosion

One of the drones was downed near a major airport to the south of the city while the other was taken out to the west of the capital near the Minsk highway, a major road that connects Moscow to Belarus.

Russia quickly blamed Ukraine for the attacks. Kyiv has not yet commented on them, and is unlikely to publicly take official responsibility as with previous incidents.

The Russian defence ministry admitted the two incursions 16 minutes apart, saying a ‘terrorist attack’ had been ‘thwarted’. 

‘An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack with unmanned aerial vehicles was prevented over the territory of the Moscow region,’ the defence ministry said. ‘Two UAVs were destroyed by air defences.’

‘There was an attempt to fly over the city with two combat drones,’ said Moscow’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin. ‘At the moment, there is no information about casualties at the crash site of the wreckage.’

Sobyanin confirmed one was shot down near Domodedovo, where one of Russia’s biggest international airports is located, and another near the Minsk motorway.

Thunderous explosions were heard overnight, and were likely the sound of air defences downing the combat drones.

Such attacks are becoming more frequent in the Russian capital, leading to concern from residents as the war continues to spill across the Ukrainian border.

In Belgorod region, a man was wounded by a suspected falling drone, said regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

A farm building was also set ablaze in Kolotilovka, village.

‘There is one victim – a man with a shrapnel wound of the foot,’ he said. 

‘The ambulance crew provided him with the necessary medical care, the man refused hospitalisation.’

CCTV cameras picked up a flash of light near Moscow as two drones were downed overnight

A CCTV camera picks up a flash of light on a residential street near Moscow as two drones were downed overnight near the Russian capital

The attempted attack overnight comes a day after the death toll from strikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk rose to nine. 

The strikes are at least the third attack near Moscow within a week, with Ukrainian drones downed on Sunday, in the Podolsky district on the capital’s outskirts, and Monday, near the Kaluga region, according to Russian officials.

Until a series of attacks in recent months, the Russian capital had not been targeted during the conflict in Ukraine, which started more than a year ago.

Russia’s defence ministry said Thursday it had downed seven drones – also near Kaluga, which is less than 200 kilometres (124 miles) southwest of Moscow.

On July 30, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that ‘war’ was coming to Russia, with the country’s ‘symbolic centres and military bases’ becoming targets.

An office block in the capital’s main business district was recently struck twice within days by debris from a downed drone attack.

The drones shot down near Moscow’s Domodedovo and Minsk highway come a day after Russia claimed a missile attack that it said targeted a Ukrainian army command post in the eastern city of Pokrovsk.

As Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has dragged on, attacks have been getting closer to Moscow, with a drone earlier this year even striking the Kremlin in what Putin’s allies claimed was an assassination attempt against the Russian president

Pictured: A blast from a supposed drone strike on the Kremlin is seen in May, 2023

Two missiles – launched 40 minutes apart – damaged residential buildings, a hotel, cafes, shops and administrative buildings.

At least nine people were killed in the attack and 82 were wounded, including two children, Zelensky said Tuesday.

The Russian claim to be targeting a command post was an ‘absolute lie’, Sergiy Cherevaty, the spokesman for Ukraine’s operational command east, said. ‘This is the third or fourth time they (the Russians) say they destroyed it.’

Pokrovsk sits just 25 miles from the eastern front line, where Moscow says it is gaining ground and repelling Ukrainian attacks.

Source: Read Full Article