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Flames engulfed a plastic making plant in Berdsk, in Russia’s central Novosibirsk region. It forms part of a series of suspected incidents of sabotage in Russia over the past few weeks. Video shows thick black smoke rising up from a burning building with the fire tearing through the plant’s roof.

More than a dozen blazes in Russia have been reported since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

The number of incidents has been increasing over the past few weeks.

Almost 50 firefighters were working at the scene in Berdsk with reports of some 22,000 square feet destroyed.

The fire began on polyethylene products on the building’s first floor, according to some reports.

It comes after a fire at a railway tanker containing unspecified solvents on the territory of the former chemical weapons factory Kaprolaktam, in Dzerzhinsk.

The first fire was reported on February 26, at the Stavrolen polyolefins plant at Budennovsk in Russia’s Stavropol region.

An explosion and fire injured 15 workers after a blaze broke out in the gas separation section of the ethylene plant in southern Russia.

A blaze on March 29 saw explosions and fires in the Russian military town of Belgorod, a few miles away from the country’s border with Ukraine.

Reports of fires started to surge last month, with at least nine incidents reported by various media outlets.

The first came on April 1 at an oil depot in Belgorod. Vyacheslav Gladkov, head of the region, said at the time: “There was a fire at the oil depot in the town of Belgorod. All emergency services went to the scene. Measures are being taken to eliminate it.”

Two blazes were reported at the Dmitrievsky Chemical Plant in the city of Kineshma and at RKK Energia’s Space Defense Centre in Korolyov on April 21.

Another two were reported a couple of days later at a Russian defence research institute in Tver and in a military enlistment office in Mordovia.

Professor Douglas London from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service told the journal Foreign Policy that some recent incidents – including oil deport fires – may have been sabotage linked to the war.

The retired CIA operations officer said: “US and allied enabling of a Ukrainian sabotage campaign inside Russia telegraphs a significant and escalating cost Putin can ill afford.”

Russia’s leading independent gun-maker has urged the country’s authorities to be more suspicious of sabotage.

Vladislav Lobaev warned: “It is hard to believe in such coincidences, especially with large or such iconic enterprises. In wartime, it is necessary to work out the version of sabotage more actively.”

More to follow…

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