Dozens of others wounded as the collapses cause trains to derail, with Russian authorities blaming at least one incident on ‘illegal interference’.

Two bridges have collapsed in different Russian regions bordering Ukraine, derailing trains, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens, Russian authorities said.

A bridge collapsed in the Kursk region early on Sunday when a freight train was crossing it, acting Kursk Governor Alexander Khinshtein and Russian Railways said on the Telegram messaging app.

The area on the Trosna-Kalinovka highway is about 11km (6.8 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.

“Part of the train fell onto a road underneath the bridge,” Khinshtein said, adding that the locomotive caught fire, which was quickly extinguished.

One of the drivers sustained leg injuries, and he and the team operating the train were taken to a local hospital, Khinshtein said.

The Kursk incident came hours after a highway bridge collapsed onto railway tracks, derailing an approaching train, in the Bryansk region late on Saturday, Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations and regional officials said.

“Unfortunately, there are seven fatalities,” Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said in a post on Telegram, adding that 66 others were injured, including three children.

“Three victims are in serious condition, including one child,” he said, with a total of 44 people hospitalised.

The driver of the train was among those killed, according to Russian news agencies. The area lies some 100km (62 miles) from Russia’s border with Ukraine.

Moscow Railway, in a post on Telegram, said the bridge had collapsed “as a result of an illegal interference in the operation of transport”. It did not elaborate further.

“The bridge was blown up while the Klimovo-Moscow train was passing through with 388 passengers on board,” Interfax quoted Bryansk region’s Governor Alexander Bogomaz as telling Russia’s public broadcaster.

Explosions have derailed multiple trains, most of them freight trains, in Russian regions near Ukraine as fighting between Russia and Ukraine continues. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Andrei Klishas, a senior member of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, said on Telegram that the incident in Bryansk shows that “Ukraine has long lost the attributes of a state and has turned into a terrorist enclave”.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, there have been continued cross-border shelling, drone strikes and covert raids from Ukraine into Russia’s Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions, which border Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Kyiv City Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Ukraine’s air defence units were trying to repel a Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital. Russian drone and missile attacks killed at least two people in Ukraine on Saturday, officials said.

United States President Donald Trump has urged Moscow and Kyiv to work together on a deal to end the war, and Russia has proposed a second round of face-to-face talks with Ukrainian officials next week in Istanbul.

Ukraine is yet to commit to attending the talks on Monday, saying it first needs to see Russian proposals, while a leading US senator warned Moscow it would be “hit hard” by new US sanctions.

Source:

Al Jazeera and news agencies