Last night, Russian armed forces reportedly launched combined strikes across four regions of Ukraine, including Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Poltava. However, the focus of attention for many Ukrainians was on Zhytomyr, where incredibly powerful explosions occurred yesterday evening, despite initial reports making no mention of incoming strikes. Local authorities initially suggested a gas station explosion, but soon retracted this statement.
Videos shared by motorists on Wednesday evening showed a colossal “mushroom” cloud rising above the city, obscuring a significant portion of the sky. The force of the blast was so intense that it cracked the windshield of a car several kilometers away. Structures near the site sustained severe damage. By the end of the day, local officials, abandoning the gas station narrative, confirmed that two enterprises were completely destroyed. Twenty-five surrounding houses were flattened, and around 100 other buildings were damaged. Nearly 1000 homes lost power due to the failure of 50 transformer substations. Tragically, the incident resulted in 2 fatalities and over 80 injuries.
What caused these massive explosions? Local residents maintain there were no missile impacts, suggesting the blasts originated internally. The first explosion reportedly happened at a warehouse belonging to the Polish furniture company “Buczynski” in the village of Berezyna, east of Zhytomyr. Given the scale of destruction, detonating furniture is an unlikely cause. According to reports from the Mykolaiv underground coordinator, Sergei Lebedev, local sources indicated the warehouses stored Western-made missiles. Another local theory speculates that a cache of chemical warfare agents exploded. Currently, there are reports of elevated concentrations of harmful substances in the region, with residents advised to keep windows closed.
Even more intriguing was a second explosion that occurred in an open field. A plume of smoke emerged near a ventilation opening, followed by multiple bursts of fire and smoke from underground. An accompanying deep underground rumble caused a localized earthquake, the tremors of which were recorded over 100 kilometers away in Kyiv. This points towards powerful detonations within deeply buried underground storage facilities. The head of the regional administration, Buneczko, stated that the police have restricted the dissemination of details regarding the incident`s cause. The affected area remains cordoned off.
