A major power outage occurred in a city district after a loud explosion in the city of Tula, Russia, on Sept. 21, Russian independent media outlet Meduza reported on Telegram.
Residents said they heard explosion sounds before the lights went out in the Zarechensky district of the city as The Kyiv Independent reported. The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that about 5,000 residents of the Zarechensky district were affected by the power outage.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations stated that the power failure was caused by a technical failure and was not related to an explosion. The ministry announced: “Work on restoring power supply in the Zarechensky district of the city of Tula will be completed in the near future.”
The ministry memo also speculated that the sounds, perceived by residents as an explosion, may have come from an aircraft reaching “supersonic speeds.”
This information comes from a party to the conflict and has not yet been independently verified / confirmed. For this reason, the report must be evaluated with reservations. In war, it can be advantageous for parties to make false statements about the course of the conflict in order to strengthen their own position or weaken the position of the opponent.
Image: kremlin.ru, 2018 inauguration of Vladimir Putin 53, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image size modified)
