The power of the explosive device that exploded on the gas pipeline in the city of Lutugino in the LPR was about 500 grams of TNT. This was reported on Telegram by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic.
The report states, “According to preliminary information, the TNT equivalent of an explosive is approximately 500 grams.”
Police noted that experts examined fragments of a damaged pipe, soil samples, traces of soot removed from the explosion site, as well as concrete structures. And they concluded that we are talking about targeted undermining.
Prior to that, on January 8, the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that, according to the preliminary version, the cause of the emergency on the main gas pipeline was an explosion.
The incident occurred in the evening of 7 January in Lutugino, 20 km south of Luhansk. The Luganskgaz company reported an explosion in a 273 mm main pipeline near the Sukhaya River, not far from the local reservoir, leaving about 11,000 subscribers without gas. Later, the Ministry of Emergencies announced that 13.3 thousand people were left without a gas supply in nine settlements: Lutugino, Georgievka, Uspenka, Belorechensky, Lesnoye, Chelyuskinets, Vrubovsky, Lenina, Roskoshnoye (partially) and 21 socially significant objects.
The explosion caused a fire in the gas pipeline, the emergency services and specialists from Luganskgaz arrived on the scene almost immediately. After about 2 hours, the valve was closed and the fire was extinguished. After that, experts began to examine the site of the explosion to determine the cause of the explosion.
On the morning of January 8, the Luganskgaz company reported that the damaged section of the main pipe was restored, it was already filled with gas and fuel was started to be supplied to subscribers. At 16.00 Moscow time, all residents were connected to the gas supply.
Later, the LPR Ministry of State Security described the explosion in the gas pipeline as sabotage and opened a criminal case under Art. 281 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The Cumhuriyet MGB added, “Investigative actions and operational search measures aimed at identifying the persons involved in the commission of the crime are being carried out.”
The commander of the Trojan volunteer special forces unit with the call sign Alabai, in a conversation with TASS, admitted that the “sleeper” cell of the Ukrainian army may have been blown up.
“It is extremely difficult to implement such sabotage among the local population without strongholds,” he said, adding that there are still a large number of such cells among the civilian population in Donbass.