Drone attack collapses bridge, derails wagons in Russia's Bryansk region
Part of a rail bridge collapsed and dozens of freight wagons derailed after drone strikes hit Bryansk region overnight, Russian authorities said.
Incidents in this story
- Bryansk, Bryansk Oblast · overnight Sunday to Monday: Bridge partially collapses, 10 wagons derail near Ukraine-Belarus border
- Bryansk, Bryansk Oblast · overnight Sunday to Monday: 18 empty freight wagons derail elsewhere in Bryansk region
- Bryansk, Bryansk Oblast · overnight Sunday to Monday: Third drone attack damages track, traffic not halted
- Bryansk, Bryansk Oblast · 26 September: Rail line and station attacked earlier in same region
A section of a railway bridge collapsed and dozens of freight wagons derailed in Russia's Bryansk region after drone attacks hit rail infrastructure overnight between Sunday and Monday, Russian authorities said. No injuries were reported.
Acting Bryansk governor Yegor Kovalchuk said one attack struck a rail section near Russia's border with Ukraine and Belarus, causing part of a bridge to collapse and ten wagons to derail. In a separate location in the same region, 18 wagons of an unloaded freight train came off the tracks, he said.
A third drone attack damaged the track without stopping train traffic, according to Kovalchuk. Moscow Railway, a subsidiary of state-owned Russian Railways, said the network had been hit by what it called "external interference" and confirmed no casualties. Train services were suspended on two sections in the Bryansk and Kaluga regions, with passengers moved by bus and some trains rerouted, the company said, according to Interfax.
Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the attacks. Ukraine's government did not immediately comment on the incident.
Russia's defence ministry said separately on Sunday that it had intercepted and destroyed 43 drones it attributed to Ukraine overnight, including over the Bryansk region, though it did not link that figure directly to the rail attacks.
The rail network in the same area was targeted days earlier: on the night of 26 September, a rail line was damaged and a station in the region was attacked, according to reports cited by G4Media. On Friday, an electric locomotive and a passenger carriage were damaged in an incident between Russia's Samara and Ulyanovsk regions, several hundred kilometres from the Ukrainian border; Russian Railways again attributed that to "external interference."
What we know
- A drone attack partially collapsed a railway bridge in Russia's Bryansk region and derailed ten freight wagons near the border with Ukraine and Belarus, said acting governor Yegor Kovalchuk.
- Eighteen wagons of a separate, unloaded freight train derailed elsewhere in the region, Kovalchuk said.
- Moscow Railway, part of state-owned Russian Railways, reported no casualties and suspended train services on two sections.
- Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the attacks; Kyiv did not immediately comment.
- Russia's defence ministry said it shot down 43 drones overnight, including over the Bryansk region.
Not yet confirmed
- G4Media reported a combined total of 28 derailed wagons and described the attack as a Ukrainian drone strike; this characterisation has not been independently confirmed in the material reviewed.
Why it matters for Europe
Rail lines have become a central target in the war. Russia regularly strikes Ukraine's railway network, which carries both passengers and military logistics, and Ukraine has increasingly struck rail routes inside Russia that it says are used to move troops, weapons and other supplies to the front.
The Bryansk region sits directly on Russia's border with Ukraine and Belarus, making its rail lines a key corridor for military supplies. Repeated attacks there, and the separate incident near Samara and Ulyanovsk, point to strikes reaching well beyond the immediate border area and into rail routes deep inside Russian territory.
Sources
Reported by 2 reports from 2 independent outlets in 2 countries.
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Questions and answers
- What happened in Russia's Bryansk region?
- Drone attacks hit rail infrastructure overnight, collapsing part of a bridge and derailing wagons at two locations, according to Russian officials.
- Were there any casualties?
- No injuries were reported, according to Moscow Railway, a subsidiary of Russian Railways.
- Who is blamed for the attack?
- Russian authorities attributed the attacks to Ukraine; Ukraine's government did not immediately comment.
This article was written with AI assistance from 2 verified reports and checked under the ECTV editorial policy. Spotted an error? Request a correction.