Russian Train Derails After Railway Track Damaged, Photos Show

A Russian locomotive reportedly derailed in the Bryansk region last Friday, when Russian media reported that the engine, which was running with no wagons behind it, fell off the tracks.

The Russian Telegram channel "Insidious Track" reported that subscribers had signaled the incident in the Bryansk region, which allegedly happened in the stretch between Zhukovka and Kletnya. The channel reports that the vehicle was a diesel locomotive registered TChE Bryansk.

The railway the locomotive was reportedly traveling on is the same line used by Moscow to send equipment and ammunition to Russian troops in Ukraine.

"The train was traveling at a speed of 40 km/h when the embankment under the locomotive slid down," writes the channel. "As a result of the gathering, an employee of a service construction organization was injured."

According to "Insidious Track," whose claims were repeated by Russian media Bragazeta, "there were no train delays" following the incident. The cause of the incident is being established, reports Bragazeta.

In images from the incident, the tracks the locomotive was traveling on clearly appear broken and disconnected, but it is unclear if the track was already damaged before the derailment, as some social media users are reporting, or it was damaged after the incident.

The photos have not been independently verified, and Russian authorities have not confirmed the incident.

A damaged railway in the region of Bryansk, close to the border with Ukraine, would be another significant blow to Russia, adding to a reported blaze at an oil depot in the city of Bryansk on April 25.

The city of Bryansk, at the heart of the Bryansk Oblast, is considered a logistics hub for Russia and a strategic location for supporting the military invasion of Ukraine. In the city, a large fire broke out overnight on Monday at a fuel depot owned by Russian state-controlled oil pipeline company Transneft.

"The Emergency Situations Ministry has confirmed there's a fire," the government's press office is quoted saying by Russian news agency TASS. "There's also a confirmation that it's the fuel tanks."

According to TASS, the first report of a fire was made at 2 a.m. Moscow time for the oil depot.

Videos proliferating on social media in the follow-up to the incident show a second blaze burning not too far from the other, but while one fire was reported by the Russian authorities, there was no official confirmation of the second.

The source of the fire was not identified by Russian authorities.

Just one day before the locomotive derailed in the Bryansk region, on April 21, a freight train reportedly derailed in the city of Belgorod, according to Ukrainian news citing Telegram channel "World of Belogorye" as the source of information on the incident.

The channel shared a video of the alleged incident, saying: "An accident happened on the railway in Belgorod. Three cars with soybeans derailed at the Kreida. No one was hurt, but it looks intimidating. The causes of the incident are being specified."

The incident was not confirmed by Russian authorities or Russian media. Belgorod local authorities had previously reported that Ukraine had sabotaged the Russian railway in the region. Belgorod is some 205 miles away from Bryansk and it's very close to the Ukrainian border near Kharkiv.

Newsweek has contacted the Ministry of Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Relief of the Russian Federation and Russia's Ministry of Transport for comment.