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The number of explosions in Russia quadrupled in 2022, the year President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an independent Russian news outlet reported.
Verstka, a news organization founded shortly after the conflict began, cited figures from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation in its claim that a total of 83 explosions occurred in Russia in 2022—more than four times the number recorded in 2021 (20 explosions).
Since Putin’s war in Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, there have been several major explosions, with attacks targeting warehouses and industrial sites. Ukraine rarely claims responsibility for strikes on Russian soil.
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The data from the Ministry of Emergency Situations included an October 2022 strike on the Kerch Bridge linking annexed Crimea to Russia, although the Black Sea peninsula is internationally recognized as Ukrainian. Kyiv claimed responsibility for that attack, and a July 17 strike on the same bridge.
Newsweek has contacted Russia’s foreign ministry via email for comment.
According to Verstka, explosions on Russian territory last year killed 55 people and injured 10,647 others. The outlet reported that the yearly number of explosions in Russia hasn’t exceeded 20 in the past 10 years, despite terrorist attacks and gas leaks in residential buildings. It also said that before 2022, the number of victims was in the hundreds, not thousands.
In 2021, a total of 482 people were injured in explosions in Russia, the news outlet found.
Last year, the most common cause of explosions was an explosive object (for example a bomb, rocket, mine, or grenade). Explosions that occurred due to such objects accounted for 55 cases. Verstka said that indicates the increase in the number of explosions last year is directly related to hostilities, or the ongoing war in Ukraine.
While data isn’t yet available for explosions that have occurred on Russian soil in 2023, there have been a string of explosions at industrial sites across the country in recent months.
On Wednesday, an explosion rocked a factory in a city near Moscow that is manufacturing optical systems for Russia’s military. Photos and videos circulating on social media showed a column of smoke rising into the sky.
At least one person died and 60 others were wounded, while about 12 people were unaccounted for, officials said. Newsweek couldn’t immediately confirm those numbers.
The cause of the explosion at the factory, located some 46 miles from the capital, remains unclear. Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported on Thursday that investigators had detained the technical director of the Piro-Ross fireworks company, which was reportedly renting the building.
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