A building for the border patrol of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, exploded in flames on Thursday in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, killing at least one person and injuring at least two, according to Russian media and local officials.
Videos posted to social media sites showed a large fire and plumes of thick, gray smoke emanating from the building. on Siverska Avenue, which runs along the Temernik River. Rostov-on-Don is located about 75 miles from the Ukrainian border.
The governor of the Rostov region, Vassily Golubev, writing on Telegram, said the fire had spread over 800 square meters — roughly 9,000 square feet — causing two walls to collapse. Residents of surrounding buildings were evacuated and at least one person was hospitalized with serious injuries, Golubev said.
The FSB is Russia’s main domestic security service, responsible for border security, surveillance, and counterterrorism.
In recent weeks, amid a rising number of cross-border attacks from Ukraine, including drone strikes, President Vladimir Putin has ordered officials to tighten security in Russia’s border regions, including Kursk, Bryansk, Belgorod, and Rostov.
Local residents told Russian media outlets that they heard loud explosions before the fire broke out.
Golubev and local emergency services officials said that a short circuit sparked the blaze, by igniting fuel tanks. The Washington Post could not independently verify these reports.
Citing local emergency officials, Tass, the state-controlled news service, reported that as a result of the fire one person had died and at least two more were injured.
In Russia’s border regions, there is rising concern about sabotage by groups opposed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and growing anxiety after flurry of drone sightings in Western Russia and an attack in Bryansk claimed by a rogue Russian nationalist group.
“It is necessary to keep the Russian-Ukrainian border under special control, to put a barrier for sabotage groups there,” Putin said at a board meeting of the FSB in late February. “The FSB must respond to the intensification of Western intelligence activities against Russia.”
One year of Russia’s war in Ukraine
Portraits of Ukraine: Every Ukrainian’s life has changed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion one year ago — in ways both big and small. They have learned to survive and support each other under extreme circumstances, in bomb shelters and hospitals, destroyed apartment complexes and ruined marketplaces. Scroll through portraits of Ukrainians reflecting on a year of loss, resilience and fear.
Battle of attrition: Over the past year, the war has morphed from a multi-front invasion that included Kyiv in the north to a conflict of attrition largely concentrated along an expanse of territory in the east and south. Follow the 600-mile front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces and take a look at where the fighting has been concentrated.
A year of living apart: Russia’s invasion, coupled with Ukraine’s martial law preventing fighting-age men from leaving the country, has forced agonizing decisions for millions of Ukrainian families about how to balance safety, duty and love, with once-intertwined lives having become unrecognizable. Here’s what a train station full of goodbyes looked like last year.
Deepening global divides: President Biden has trumpeted the reinvigorated Western alliance forged during the war as a “global coalition,” but a closer look suggests the world is far from united on issues raised by the Ukraine war. Evidence abounds that the effort to isolate Putin has failed and that sanctions haven’t stopped Russia, thanks to its oil and gas exports.
