A constructing for the border patrol of Russia’s Federal Safety Service, or FSB, exploded in flames on Thursday within the southern metropolis of Rostov-on-Don, killing at the very least one individual and injuring at the very least two, in response to Russian media and native officers.
Movies posted to social media websites confirmed a big hearth and plumes of thick, grey smoke emanating from the constructing. on Siverska Avenue, which runs alongside the Temernik River. Rostov-on-Don is situated about 75 miles from the Ukrainian border.
The governor of the Rostov area, Vassily Golubev, writing on Telegram, mentioned the hearth had unfold over 800 sq. meters — roughly 9,000 sq. toes — inflicting two partitions to break down. Residents of surrounding buildings had been evacuated and at the very least one individual was hospitalized with critical accidents, Golubev mentioned.
The FSB is Russia’s primary home safety service, accountable for border safety, surveillance, and counterterrorism.
In current weeks, amid a rising variety of cross-border assaults from Ukraine, together with drone strikes, President Vladimir Putin has ordered officers to tighten safety in Russia’s border areas, together with Kursk, Bryansk, Belgorod, and Rostov.
Native residents informed Russian media retailers that they heard loud explosions earlier than the hearth broke out.
Golubev and native emergency providers officers mentioned {that a} quick circuit sparked the blaze, by igniting gasoline tanks. The Washington Put up couldn’t independently confirm these reviews.
Citing native emergency officers, Tass, the state-controlled information service, reported that on account of the hearth one individual had died and at the very least two extra had been injured.
In Russia’s border areas, there’s rising concern about sabotage by teams against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and rising nervousness after flurry of drone sightings in Western Russia and an assault in Bryansk claimed by a rogue Russian nationalist group.
“It’s essential to maintain the Russian-Ukrainian border underneath particular management, to place a barrier for sabotage teams there,” Putin mentioned at a board assembly of the FSB in late February. “The FSB should reply to the intensification of Western intelligence actions in opposition to Russia.”
One yr of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine
Portraits of Ukraine: Each Ukrainian’s life has modified since Russia launched its full-scale invasion one yr in the past — in methods each large and small. They’ve discovered to outlive and help one another underneath excessive circumstances, in bomb shelters and hospitals, destroyed house complexes and ruined marketplaces. Scroll by means of portraits of Ukrainians reflecting on a yr of loss, resilience and concern.
Battle of attrition: Over the previous yr, the warfare has morphed from a multi-front invasion that included Kyiv within the north to a battle of attrition largely concentrated alongside an expanse of territory within the east and south. Comply with the 600-mile entrance line between Ukrainian and Russian forces and check out the place the preventing has been concentrated.
A yr of residing aside: Russia’s invasion, coupled with Ukraine’s martial regulation stopping fighting-age males from leaving the nation, has pressured agonizing selections for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian households about the best way to steadiness security, obligation and love, with once-intertwined lives having turn into unrecognizable. Right here’s what a prepare station filled with goodbyes regarded like final yr.
Deepening international divides: President Biden has trumpeted the reinvigorated Western alliance cast through the warfare as a “international coalition,” however a more in-depth look suggests the world is way from united on points raised by the Ukraine warfare. Proof abounds that the trouble to isolate Putin has failed and that sanctions haven’t stopped Russia, due to its oil and fuel exports.
