Overview
- A bridge collapsed onto a Moscow-bound passenger train in the Bryansk region late Saturday, derailing carriages and killing seven people, including the locomotive driver.
- Rescue services reported over 70 injuries from the Bryansk derailment, with several children among the wounded and hundreds of personnel deployed to the scene.
- Hours later in neighboring Kursk, a bridge explosion derailed a freight train, injuring at least one driver, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.
- Officials described both collapses as deliberate “illegal interference,” classifying them as terrorist acts, while Ukrainian authorities have not yet commented.
- The back-to-back blasts near the Ukrainian border have intensified tensions on the eve of scheduled Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul.