Explosion at Russian missile base near Orenburg, likely during rocket test

That is according to the Telegram channel Astra, Ukrinform reports.

Local residents claim the explosion was caused by an unsuccessful rocket launch – the missile reportedly detonated in the air.

Russian authorities have issued no official comments. Regional officials said residents of Yasny would not be evacuated, insisting there was no threat to the population, and advised all further questions be directed to the Ministry of Defense.

Astra published eyewitness footage showing the moment of the explosion, believed to involve a Sarmat missile, and a dark mushroom-shaped plume rising over the launch site near Orenburg.

Yasny is home to a cosmodrome and a strategic missile base – one of 11 locations in Russia from which long-range ground-launched missiles, including those equipped with nuclear warheads, can be fired. The 13th Missile Division is stationed there and is slated to be rearmed with the Sarmat system. The most recent test launch of this missile ended with an explosion in a silo at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Since no space launch activity was announced today, analysts suggest the footage shows a Sarmat test that may have been moved to this site following the earlier failed launch, Astra reports.

The Telegram channel, citing analysts from Ukraine's Defense Express, notes that the purple-colored smoke seen after the explosion is characteristic of missiles using toxic propellants such as amyl and heptyl – among them the Sarmat, which Russian authorities have been promising to place on combat duty since 2022. Another version from Ukrainian OSINT analysts is that the footage may show the launch of a UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with an Avangard glide vehicle.

Last month Russia conducted a test of the long-range Burevestnik cruise missile with a nuclear propulsion system, launched from the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Barents Sea.

Photo: Astra