Firefighters work at the side of the Zagorsk Optical and Mechanical Plant after a blast about 41 miles northeast of Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday. Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via Associated Press
TALLINN, Estonia — A Russian rocket attack on Wednesday killed three people and wounded at least seven others in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, which is near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Ukrainian officials said.
The number of victims could rise in the attack, which damaged a residential area, regional Gov. Yuriy Malashko said on Telegram.
The city lies about 30 miles northeast of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since the early weeks of the war. Shelling in the plant’s surroundings has raised persistent fears of a nuclear accident.
In Russia, an explosion on the grounds of a factory that makes optical equipment for Russia’s security forces wounded 56 people on Wednesday north of Moscow, six of them severely, officials said.
Russian officials did not provide a suspected cause of the explosion, which produced a tall plume of black smoke and added to jitters over recent nighttime drone attacks on Moscow. Earlier, officials said Russian air defenses shot down two drones aimed at the capital overnight, and they accused Ukraine of an attempted attack.
The blast occurred at a warehouse storing fireworks but was on the grounds of the Zagorsk optics manufacturing plant, said Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the region surrounding the Russian capital. The explosion damaged 38 apartment buildings and prompted an evacuation of nearby areas, he said.
Vorobyov said the company rented out the warehouse for storage, but he later claimed the plant itself was mostly producing pyrotechnics. He said the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant “has had nothing to do with optics or mechanics for a long time.”
The company’s website says it still manufactures those products, as well as medical equipment. A 1995 report by the U.S. Department of Commerce described the factory as “a producer of precision optical equipment for the military.”
Russian investigative news outlet Agentstvo reported Wednesday that state procurement data from recent years showed the plant supplied binoculars and dosimeters to Russia’s National Guard, produced equipment for military aircraft, and was involved in the development of a new fighter-bomber.
Rescuers work at the scene of a building damaged by Russian missile strikes in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Wednesday. Zaporizhzhia Administration Press Office via Associated Press
Russian authorities feared five people were missing in the aftermath of the explosion. Emergency crews with sniffer dogs walked over the rubble of low brick buildings, video from the scene showed. Firefighters hosed down the mangled industrial wreckage.
Some Russian media reported that a drone attack caused the blast at the manufacturing plant site. Multiple Russian authorities, including Vorobyov and Russia’s Investigative Committee, denied that.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top criminal investigations agency, said in a statement it has launched a criminal inquiry on charges of violating industrial safety requirements at hazardous production facilities.
Russian officials described the downed drones as Ukraine’s latest attempt to strike the Russian capital in an alleged campaign to unnerve Muscovites and take the war in Ukraine to Russia.
The drones were intercepted on their approach to Moscow and there were no casualties, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The Russian Defense Ministry described the incident as a “terrorist attack.”
One of the drones came down in the Domodedovo district south of Moscow, and the other fell near the Minsk highway west of the city, according to Sobyanin. Moscow Domodedovo Airport is one of the Russian capital’s busiest airports.
It wasn’t clear where the drones were launched, and Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment. Ukraine usually neither confirms nor denies such attacks.
Flights were briefly halted at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on July 30 and Aug. 1, when drones smashed into Moscow’s business district after being jammed by air defenses in two separate incidents.
In May, Russian authorities accused Ukraine of attempting to attack the Kremlin with two drones to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. Recent drone attacks have been aimed at targets from the Russian capital to the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
In another incident that caused alarm, Ukrainian media reported social media blogs saying that a thick plume of smoke billowed over Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said the smoke came from a “fleet training exercise” and urged residents not to worry.
“Yes, the smell is unpleasant, but it is safe,” he said on Telegram. “Everything is calm in the city.”
Those incidents occurred against the backdrop of Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive, which Ukrainian and Western officials have warned will be a long slog against the Kremlin’s deeply entrenched forces.
Russia is pushing back against the Ukrainians in eastern areas, where tough battles are taking place, Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, said Wednesday on her official Telegram channel.
“In some parts of the front-line multiple changes in position take place within a day,” she said.
She claimed that Ukraine’s efforts had achieved “partial success” in the south. She gave no details.
It wasn’t possible to independently verify either side’s claims.
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