2024-02-08T14:25:38+00:00
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/ In an incident that could turn into a catastrophe, a powerful explosion occurred in a military factory that produces components for nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in western Russia, while Moscow announced that it was “pre-planned.”
According to press reports and videos circulating on the Internet, the explosion occurred at the Votkinsk plant, several dozen kilometers from the city of Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurt Republic of the Russian Federation. The plant produces components necessary for the manufacture of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, including the RS-24 Yars intercontinental missile, and strategic missiles for the Iskander and Topol-M systems.
In contrast, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency said local emergency services said the explosion was the result of a “pre-planned test of rocket engines,” describing it as “a planned event, not an emergency.”
But Western media reported that there was no mention of a planned test on the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s website, where such notices are usually posted.
According to the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona, the official Telegram channel of the Udmurt Republic’s Emergencies Ministry wrote that the Russian Emergencies Ministry had not previously announced the powerful explosion at the plant.
Mediazona reported that the message was deleted after a few minutes, and half an hour later the ministry published another post that said: “No emergency or abnormal situation has been registered on the territory of the Udmurtia Republic, and no incidents of social significance have occurred.”
After the explosion, a huge fire broke out in the factory, and it is unclear if there were any casualties.
According to the American magazine “Newsweek”, the Russian army used weapons produced by the factory in the attack on Ukraine, which began two years ago and is still ongoing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the plant in 2011 and described it as “one of the leading enterprises of the Russian defense industry,” and by the end of 2023 the plant had 19 government contracts for the production of nuclear weapons components.