Ukraine blows up railway used to supply Russia with weapons from North Korea

Russia rail line hit by Ukraine’s security service, Ukraine official says (Picture: East2West)

A Russian train containing munitions from North Korea has been blown up by Ukrainian special forces operating deep behind enemy lines.

The oil train went up in flames after explosives were detonated inside a nine-mile-long tunnel in Siberia- the longest in Russia.

Successive explosions are then said to have happened on a bridge in Russia’s far east.

Ukrainian sources told the BBC their intention was to ‘disable’ an important piece of infrastructure that the Russians sometimes use for military purposes.

Kim Jong-un has supplied Putin with vast supplies of artillery shells and other munitions after the pair met in Vladivostok in September.

It is also on the main line for imports from China, said reports.

Dramatic footage from Russian news sites shows the carnage with burning oil after the second explosion some 3,000 miles from the Ukrainian border in Siberia.

The second explosion on another train was reported ‘in the same area’.

‘Four tanker wagons from the train burned out, two more were damaged by fire,’ reported Baza media outlet.

Fuel spread over an area of 1,600 square feet, it was stated.

The report also said investigators were treating the explosions as ‘sabotage’ and had opened a criminal case into ‘terrorist’ attacks.

The nine-mile-long Severomuysky Tunnel in the Buryatia region of Siberia is used to transport supplies from China and North Korea (Picture: social media/e2w)

A senior Ukrainian official told the BBC that the freight train had in fact exploded in the tunnel.

They said the Russians then fell into the ‘trap’ of using an alternative bridge route which was later destroyed.

‘This is exactly what the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) was counting on,’ said the official.

‘During the passage of the train on this 35m-high bridge, explosive devices planted in it went off.’

One account said the train comprised 50 tanker wagons – 41 with diesel and three with aviation fuel.

‘As a result of the explosion, tanker wagon 16 at the head of the train burned out,’ reported Baza.

Holes were found in two more tankers.

A Ukrainian official says they led the Russians into a trap (Picture: Readovka / east2west news)

‘After the explosion, it was possible to remove 14 tanks, but further transportation of the wagons is not yet possible.

‘The explosion seriously damaged the rails, and the leaked fuel flooded them….

‘Later, another train was blown up in the same area.’

As Moscow’s war in Ukraine grinds on, Kyiv is trying to disrupt the Russian war machine after its own counteroffensive achieved only modest gains and it now finds itself on the defensive in some places.

Russia initially claimed the tunnel explosion was caused by a ‘short circuit’ but now appears to accept it was a sabotage attack.

Last month Lt-Gen Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, said rockets in Kim’s arsenal are suitable for the Grad anti-aircraft missile defence system, and some Russian tanks.

North Korea is capable of producing a significant number of artillery shells, since, unlike Russian, the Pyongyang regime has preserved facilities for serial weapons production.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russian military plants can satisfy only seven per cent of the Russian army’s need for artillery shells.

‘It’s a question of how much the Koreans will be able to transfer quickly,’ said Budanov.

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