In Russia, the collapse of two bridges, one of which killed seven people, was caused by explosions, according to investigators.

The collapse of two bridges in the Russian regions of Bryansk and Kursk, bordering Ukraine, on the night of Saturday May 31 to Sunday June 1, was caused by “explosions”, according to Russia's Investigative Committee. “These actions have been classified as acts of terrorism,” said Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee, quoted by the state news agency RIA.

At least seven people were killed and nearly 70 injured when a road bridge collapsed onto a railroad line in south-west Russia, derailing a train near the Ukrainian border on Saturday evening, according to Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the oblast. Initially, the railway company had cited “illegal interference in the transport operation” as the cause of the disaster in Bryansk Oblast, adding that other train traffic was not disrupted.

The accident on train N.86, which was travelling from Klimovo in the Belgorod region (southwest) to Moscow, occurred at 10:44 pmat Pilchino-Vygonitchi, Russian Railways said. Videos posted on social networks show rescue workers working at the scene, as a large landslide covers what appears to be a train.

On Sunday morning, the governor of the neighboring Kursk oblast, Alexander Khinshtein, reported the collapse of another bridge, this time a railway bridge over which a locomotive was travelling, which “fell” onto the freeway running underneath and “caught fire”. The drivers, whose number he did not specify, were injured and taken to hospital, he continued.

The Bryansk and Kursk regions border on Ukraine. Kiev's forces once seized 1,400 square kilometers after a surprise assault in August 2024, before retaking them in April. Cases of sabotage of Russian railroads have occurred in areas close to Ukraine.

At the beginning of April, the courts in the Volgograd region of south-west Russia, which does not border Ukraine but is nevertheless relatively close, reported the sentencing to fourteen years' imprisonment of a 23-year-old man found guilty of setting fire to railway infrastructure. He admitted to the act, which he described as pro-Ukraine.

In the neighboring southwestern region of Saratov, two 24-year-old men received sentences of fourteen and twelve years' imprisonment in a similar case. Most attacks of this type, for which the perpetrators are convicted, are carried out by young individuals.

Ukraine does not usually comment on sabotage on Russian territory. However, it sometimes welcomes them as legitimate responses to Russia's offensives against its own rail network.