Hours after Moscow authorities announced the neutralization of two combat drones, an explosion near a factory producing optical and electronic equipment in the north of the Russian capital left one dead and at least 55 injured, five in serious condition. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu addressed the military, saying threats to his country had increased “exponentially” and that the response would be “timely and adequate”.
Information from the governor of the region Andrei Vorobyov initially pointed to an explosion in a warehouse of pyrotechnic materials, but later stated that the factory – a supplier to the army – has had no relationship with optics “for some time”.
Located in Sergiev Posad, 70 kilometers from Moscow, the Zagorsk factory partially burned down in June. And now, according to videos posted on social networks, he allegedly produces or stores ammunition instead of pyrotechnics: projectiles are visible in several publications near the plant.
The magnitude of the explosion created a huge plume of smoke and damaged 38 residential buildings around it, blowing out windows. Russian authorities gave no probable cause for what happened, but some media outlets claimed the explosion was due to a drone strike. Authorities accused Ukraine of attempting an attack after it reported that air defenses had shot down two unmanned aerial vehicles heading for the capital overnight, but rejected that hypothesis.
threat list
During a meeting with senior officers of the Russian Armed Forces, the Defense Minister presented a worrying scenario, saying that “in the western and northwestern strategic directions, threats to Russia’s military security have increased exponentially”, requiring “a timely response and adequate” .
Presenting a report on the strengthening of Russian military clusters on the country’s western borders, Sergei Shoigu viewed Finland’s NATO membership and Sweden’s future as a “serious destabilizing factor” because Russia’s land border with the Atlantic Alliance doubled. “It is likely that NATO military contingents and weapons capable of hitting critical targets in northwestern Russia will be placed on Finnish territory,” he warned.
In addition, the man who wanted to overthrow the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin sees the “militarization of Poland” as a problem. For Shoigu, Warsaw is at the same time the “main instrument of US anti-Russian policy”, and intends to form the “most powerful army in Europe” to later occupy western Ukraine. “There are plans to establish the so-called Polish-Ukrainian connection, supposedly to guarantee the security of Western Ukraine, but in reality for the subsequent occupation of this area,” he charged.
According to the defense minister, Ukraine is waging a “proxy war” against Russia, with the West providing “unprecedented support to the puppet regime” in Kiev. “The willingness of the West to send a significant amount of available resources to Ukraine to turn the situation on the battlefield in its favor creates serious risks of an escalation of the conflict,” he said. Shoigu also accused the US of requiring the Allies to provide “increasingly deadly, longer-range weapons” such as Britain’s Storm Shadow missiles.
Source: DN
