In second fire at Russian engine plant in 2 days, fire engulfs US-sanctioned Yaroslavl facility
A fire broke out on June 4 at the Avtodizel motor plant in Yaroslavl, one of Russia’s largest producers of diesel engines and a supplier to the Russian military, the Moscow Times reported, citing regional emergency officials.
Located roughly 280 kilometers (174 miles) northeast of Moscow, the Yaroslavl Motor Plant has been under U.S. sanctions since May 2024. The U.S. Treasury Department cited the facility’s role in supplying engines for military equipment used in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The blaze engulfed a 400-square-meter workshop where 12-cylinder engines are manufactured. It took firefighters more than 90 minutes to extinguish the open flames, according to Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry.
No casualties were reported. The cause of the fire has not been disclosed.
This is the second major fire at a Russian engine plant in two days. On June 2, a blast and fire tore through a workshop at the Zavolzhsky Motor Plant in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.
Local authorities said the cause was a tanker truck fire in a facility storing chemicals. That plant produces gasoline and diesel engines for civilian and military vehicles.
Ukraine has not commented on the Yaroslavl fire. Kyiv has escalated its campaign to strike military-industrial targets inside Russia as Moscow continues to reject calls for a ceasefire and expand its aerial assault on Ukrainian cities.
Ukrainian drone attacks in recent weeks have forced repeated shutdowns of Russian airports and struck military airfields and logistics hubs across Russia and occupied parts of Ukraine.
Russian authorities have not accused Ukraine of involvement in the fires, but the incidents come amid a broader pattern of unexplained industrial accidents and infrastructure damage inside Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion.
The Kyiv IndependentOleg Sukhov