Ukraine claims railway sabotage attacks in Russia’s Siberia

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine claimed on Friday to have orchestrated attacks on a Russian railway line in Siberia, thousands of kilometres from the frontline, in the latest reported sabotage incidents inside Russian territory.

Russian authorities have reported a number of attacks on transport infrastructure since it launched full-scale hostilities in Ukraine in February last year, occasionally pointing the finger at Kyiv.

“The Russians have fallen into the SBU´s trap twice -- another fuel train has exploded on the Baikal-Amur railway,” a source in Ukrainian law enforcement agencies told AFP, referring to the SBU security services.

The source said the alleged attack on Friday was a follow-up to an initial explosion on Wednesday night involving a train transiting the remote region of Buryatia.

There was no immediate response from the Russian side to the latest incident, but Moscow confirmed a train crew earlier this week had spotted smoke in a fuel tank and called firefighters to the scene.