New footage appearing to show the aftermath of a blast at a Russian explosives factory circulated online, with plumes of smoke billowing over the facility.
Local Russian media reported an explosion at a large munitions facility in Solikamsk, in Russia’s central Perm region, on Tuesday. Smoke can be seen rising above a snowy landscape in clips shared by Russian state media and widely on Russian-language Telegram channels, purportedly filmed close to the Solikamsk plant.
Newsweek could not independently verify when or where the footage circulating online was filmed.
There were no injuries or fatalities from the blast, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, adding that operations had fully resumed at the facility. There was no one present at the time in the building where the explosion took place, Russia’s regional office of its Emergency Situations Ministry told local media.
It did “not affect the operation” of the plant, the government added.
Newsweek reached out to Russian officials for comment via email.
The plant in Solikamsk is “one of the largest military-industrial plants in Russia that produces explosives and special chemicals,” Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The facility is involved in supplying Russia with gunpowder and explosives, according to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, which claims to have links to, and inside information from Russia’s security services.
“The furniture shook,” one resident wrote on social media, according to Russian media.
It’s the latest incident in a series of blasts at Russian explosive and chemical manufacturing sites, some of which are thought to have supplied Russia’s military for the Kremlin’s now 20-month-long campaign in Ukraine.
In early May 2022, an explosion at a munitions facility in Perm killed two workers at the plant, Russian authorities confirmed. A second blast at the Perm gunpowder factory was reported by Russian state media in late October 2022. The facility produced components for several types of Russian missiles and air defense systems, Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported at the time.
YEKATERINA SHTUKINA/AFP via Getty Images
In July 2023, six people were reported dead after a blast at the Promsintez factory in Chapayevsk, a town in Russia’s central Samara region. Two more were injured, the Tass news agency reported, citing an emergency official.
The explosion at the explosives and chemical manufacturing facility “happened as a technical pipeline was being dismantled,” Tass said.
The previous month, five people were killed in an explosion at a gunpowder factory in Russia’s central Tambov region.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.