At least 45 people were injured on Wednesday from a massive explosion at a factory outside of Moscow. Windows of nearby buildings were also blown out, as a result of the blast that occurred at the Zagorsk optical-mechanical plant in the city of Sergiev Posad. Six people were reportedly in intensive care.
Russian state news agency Tass claimed that according to emergency services, the explosion happened “in the area of the boiler room,” while reports from Russia also said the source of the detonation was a pyrotechnics warehouse rented by a third company on the site of the plant. The plant is a developer and manufacturer of optical and optoelectronic devices that are used by the Russian military, law enforcement agencies, industry, and healthcare.
About 20 apartment buildings and four social facilities have sustained damage in an explosion, Russian state media reported.
“As for the blast at the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant, only preliminary information is available at this point as all emergency services are working at the site. The explosion occurred at a fireworks warehouse, which was rented by a well-known local company. The blast was caused by a violation of technological processes,” Chairman of the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Committee on Construction, Housing and Communal Services Sergey Pakhomov said, as cited in the statement.
Russian authorities were also quick to say that the blast was not caused by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or the military drones that Ukraine has employed in recent attacks on Moscow and other Russian cities.
Drones Did Target Russia
Early on Wednesday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that two drones had been shot down by the air defense systems over the capital. He added that there was no information on any casualties.
“Two combat drones have attempted to fly to the city. Both were shot down by air defense systems, one in the Domodedovo area, and another one in the vicinity of Minskoye Highway. No injuries have been reported,” Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel, according to a report from Tass.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted the Russian capital city in recent months, and the city came under attack four times in just the last month. While Kyiv hasn’t taken responsibility for the attacks, following the reports of Sunday’s strike on the Russian capital, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that “war” would come home to Russia.
In one attack, drones crashed into two office buildings in the Moskva-Citi business district, just miles from the Kremlin. One of the buildings houses several government offices including the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Digital Development and the Federal Agency for Nationalities among other agencies.
Some glass panels in one high-rise building were blown out and glass and debris littered part of the pavement below, according to a Reuters reporter who was on the scene.
Moscow is about 500 km (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Two drones reached the Kremlin in the heart of the city in May, and that remains the most-profile incident of its kind. Russia’s foreign ministry has said such attacks “would not be possible without the help provided to the Kyiv regime by the U.S. and its NATO allies.”
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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