5/7/23
Several videos circulated online on Sunday showing massive black smoke over Russia reportedly caused by a blaze at a construction site in Moscow on the same day that wildfires ravaged other areas in the country.
A fire broke out on Sunday at a construction site that belongs to PIK Group, a Russian real estate construction company headquartered in Moscow, Euromaiden Press reported, citing reports from city residents. The reportedly burning site is located around 5 miles from the FSB Academy.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, but the media outlet reported that the flames broke out after garbage and construction materials caught fire. Euromaiden Press posted a brief clip of the black smoke billowing over buildings in Moscow.
A video of the fire was shared on Twitter by analyst Feher Junior, Irish journalist Jason Corcoran, and former Representative Adam Kinzinger who wrote, “The dreams of Russian expansion?” The clip was also shared on a Telegram channel named “Operational Armed Forces,” which posts about operational news of the Ukrainian army, according to its bio on the social media platform.
Residents in the city of Asbest in the Sverdlovsk region, where reportedly four large fires spread out, were left without water or electricity after water and power facilities were impacted.
The region also saw a fire—whose origins has not been determined—last week that swept across a village, leaving one person dead and hundreds of people homeless, according to Reuters.
Reports of the fires in Russia come a few days after two drones hit the Kremlin in Moscow last week. A small explosion of the drone above the building’s domed roof was caught on video that circulated online, but it remains unclear who is responsible for the attempted strike. Russia accused Ukraine of the “terrorist attack” and trying to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Kyiv denied.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country wouldn’t attack Putin or Moscow, adding that his country doesn’t have “enough weapon[s] for this.”
Newsweek reached out by email to the Russian foreign affairs ministry and PIK Group for comment.
Burn, mafia land, burn!
A burning mafia land is a good mafia land.
Make crispy critters of all fascists!