A massive blast rocked a Russian ammunition depot Tuesday. The Kremlin blamed it on a fire from a lack of safety when working with explosives.
Video footage and images began to surface on social media on Tuesday, showing smoke plumes and fireballs at what was identified as Russia’s 51st Main Missile and Artillery Directorate (GRAU) Arsenal, a facility located northeast of Moscow in the Vladimir Region, more than 300 miles from the Ukrainian border.
There were reports later of secondary explosions. Ukraine’s strategic communications center said that the facility is one of the Russian defense ministry’s largest munitions arsenals.
Russia’s 51st GRAU is in the Kirzhach district of the Vladimir region. Russian state media said that authorities declared a state of emergency in this district.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, wrote in a message on the Telegram messaging app that the arsenal stores around 100,000 tons of weaponry. He said this includes artillery shells and missiles. Business Insider could not immediately verify the reported details of the incident.
The cause of the blast was initially unclear. Russia’s defense ministry later provided an explanation. Though it did not identify the exact site of the explosion, it said that a fire at a military site in the Vladimir region caused ammunition to detonate inside a warehouse. The Kremlin said the incident will be investigated.
“According to preliminary information, there are no casualties,” the ministry said in a statement posted to Telegram. “The cause of the fire is a violation of safety requirements when working with explosive materials.”
“Based on the results of the investigation, the guilty officials will be held accountable,” the statement added.
Russian state media outlet Tass later reported that four people were injured in the explosion, citing the governor of the region. There were no fatalities, it added. Multiple settlements in the area were evacuated.
The Ukrainian military has not commented publicly on the explosive incident at the Russian facility. It frequently carries out long-range missile and drone attacks against Russia’s energy and military facilities, including ammunition depots.
Russia has a history of accidents like the one on Tuesday. Ammunition depots have exploded a few times. In fact, at this site, specifically in the Vladimir region, four people were killed in June 2022 when the ammunition inside detonated during unloading operations.
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