An explosion has torn through a gas facility in the Russian city of Grozny, capital of the semi-autonomous Chechen Republic, according to independent Russian news outlet Astra.
Footage posted on social media shows the gas station being engulfed by a huge explosion creating a large fireball and launching debris into surrounding areas. Newsweek has not independently verified the authenticity of this footage.
Chechnya is largely ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov, a pro-Russian strongman installed by the Kremlin after two devastating wars involving Chechen separatists and Islamic fundamentalists in the 1990s and 2000s. In recent months, Russian infrastructure and military facilities have been hit repeatedly by Ukrainian drones, though the cause of Saturday’s explosion is unclear.
Ukrainian media outlet RBC-Ukraine said the gas station that exploded was situated near a college. Citing pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, it said at least four people were injured, including a mother and child who were hit by debris from the explosion. No official casualty figures have been released and it’s unclear what caused the explosion.
Newsweek contacted the Russian foreign ministry for comment via email on Saturday outside of regular office hours.
Tensions have surged in Russia’s restive Caucasus region, which includes Muslim dominated Chechnya, with Kadyrov this week threatening to declare a “blood feud” against Russian lawmakers from the neighboring regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia who he said were involved in a plot to assassinate him.
Kadyrov said the blood feud would be launched unless State Duma deputies Bekkhan Barakhoev and Rizvan Kurbanov, along with Dagestani Senator Suleiman Kerimov, could prove they were not involved in the alleged plot.
In September, two security guards were shot dead at the Moscow office of Wildberries, the largest online retailer in Russia, in a business dispute reportedly involving men loyal to Kadyrov and the Russian politicians he is threatening with a blood feud. Kadyrov has described claims that he was involved in the incident as an attempt to “pit entire nations against each other on domestic disputes.”
On Friday, three people were killed in Ingushetia, which neighbors Chechnya, after a car carrying a local security official was shot at, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. The Caucuses region remains plagued by violence attributed to Islamic fundamentalists, separatists and organized crime.
Also on Saturday, a number of pro-Kremlin military bloggers reported a Russian military aircraft, identified by one as a Su-34 fighter, had been shot down by Ukrainian forces. The incident has not been independently verified.
According to Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Ukraine, over the past few weeks, Russia has transferred 50,000 soldiers to its Kursk region to support an ongoing counter-offensive.
Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack into Kursk province in August seizing a number of towns and villages before the line was stabilized by Russian reinforcements.
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