Explosions In Russia's Ukraine Border Cities Destroy Supplies, Trains, Electricity

Ukraine is striking back at Russian logistics capabilities by hitting targets in the Belgorod region, which is the administrative hub for Russian troops in Ukraine. 

These attacks also send a message to the Russian populace, which polls show is increasingly anxious about Russia's Ukraine strategy, especially in light of Putin's ordered missile attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets. JL 

Thomas Newdick reports in The Drive:

Rail services in the Belgorod region were suspended today after at least one missile  damaged rail infrastructure and overhead power lines, temporarily shutting down an important logistics route for the Russian military in Ukraine. The ammunition dump struck (caused)  fatalities and injuries. Videos posted to social media suggested that further attacks were underway as night fell on the Belgorod region. These attacks targeted a thermal powerplant, resulting in power outages across the region. “Power lines are damaged. Trains are temporarily suspended,”

With much attention focused on new air defense systems to strengthen Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russian missile and drone attacks, the Ukrainian military appears to have launched a missile barrage of its own targeting Belgorod in western Russia. According to claims by Russian state news agencies, the attacks left an undisclosed number of people in the region, which borders Ukraine, killed or injured, with a rail line and an ammunition dump being among the apparent targets.

Rail services in the Belgorod region were suspended today after at least one missile — apparently a Ukrainian Tochka series, or SS-21 Scarab tactical ballistic missile — came down on a line near the town of Novyi Oskol. Pictures said to have been taken at the site of the strike that has appeared on social media show obvious damage both to the track and the overhead power lines. The photos also look to show the tail end of a Tochka or Tochka-U missile.It's unclear whether the missile was intended to hit this rail infrastructure, and in the process degrade, even temporarily shut down an important logistics route for the Russian military in Ukraine, or whether it missed its intended target.

 

The ammunition dump that was reportedly struck was in the village of Oktyabrsky, where Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti said there had been fatalities and injuries. It's not clear what munitions may have been used in this instance. Russian authorities blamed the explosion on Ukrainian “shelling” from over the border. This may imply long-range artillery, including multiple rocket launchers, or it could also have involved the Tochka. Oktyabrsky is only around five miles from the border with Ukraine.

Ukraine launching attacks on Russian ammunition depots would certainly make sense, with the value of each such storage site increasing day by day, amid indications that Russia is running low on artillery shells and other heavy munitions needed to support their campaign in Ukraine.

As for the Tochka, this has seen sporadic use by both sides in the conflict so far, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not thought to possess significant stocks of this weapon. According to IISS, Ukraine possessed 90 of the launchers prior to the outbreak of the latest conflict and an undisclosed number of missile rounds. The Cold War-era system is fired from a road-mobile transporter-erector-launcher and can carry a warhead of over 1,000 pounds to a range of 45 miles for the original Tochka or 75 miles for the improved Tochka-U.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor of the Belgorod region, said Russian air defenses managed to shoot down at least one missile, also near Novyi Oskol — again, the type was not disclosed. The town is less than 60 miles north of the border with Ukraine, which puts it within range of the Tochka missile and long-range 'suicide drones.'

“Power lines are damaged. Trains are temporarily suspended,” Gladkov said, on the Telegram messaging service, adding that there were no casualties in Novyi Oskol.

Later the same day, videos posted to social media suggested that further attacks were underway as night fell on the Belgorod region. Unsubsubstantiated accounts suggest that these attacks have targeted a thermal powerplant, resulting in power outages across the region.

 

The latest apparent Ukrainian attacks seem to continue a trend of targeting the Belgorod region, which has seen a string of unexplained explosions and fires as well as outright attacks. Yesterday, October 13, Gladkov, blamed Ukrainian shells for hitting the top floor of a 16-story apartment block in the city of Belgorod, the region’s administrative hub, which is around 20 miles from the border. He said that no one was hurt.

Gladkov also said that an ammunition dump near Belgorod city and a border post in the frontier town of Shebekino had been destroyed and that further damage had been inflicted on a school in a village close to the border. There is so far no independent confirmation of these claims, although videos posted to social media, including the one below, purport to show the burning ammunition depot.