In the Russian republic of Chuvashia, authorities reported a fire near an underground gas pipeline following a leak, with details released by the regional Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and cited by the national news agency TASS. The incident occurred near the village of Yambakhtino, where a leak was followed by a blaze inside an underground segment of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas line. Emergency services were alerted to a fire in the Vurnarsky district at 13:44 Moscow time, and the Ministry of Emergencies later confirmed the blast details. The regional administration, through its press service, indicated that an explosion occurred on the same pipeline pathway.
Initial reports from a local rural settlement leader and subsequent regional updates identified three workers who died in the blast, with at least one person reported injured. Local emergency responders described a substantial emergency operation, deploying dozens of firefighters and rescuers along with numerous units of specialized equipment to manage the situation and secure the area.
Names surfaced on a Telegram channel associated with a local news outlet, identifying the deceased gas workers as Sergey Nikolaev, Alexander Maksimov, and Yuri Ilyin. The channel claimed the team originated from Krasnoarmeysk and was in the final stages of a planned section between Kalinino and Shumerlya, preparing to refill the pipeline. It was reported that the work agenda aimed for completion by early the following morning. A KamAZ truck driver, 36-year-old Yevgeny Dmitriev, stayed with the gas crew as they warmed up, later moving to the vehicle. He survived with burns to his hands as a window shattered during the explosion, and the truck itself caught fire after the blast. The driver later relocated to a nearby village as a subsequent explosion occurred, with the KamAZ burning in an adjacent field.
Officials from the Vurnarsky district administration noted that the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline sits roughly 3 kilometers from the nearest settlement. The district’s Department of Special Programs reported extremely high pressure on the line, which supplies gas across a broad swath of territory.
Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod stands as a major export conduit built in 1983 to move natural gas from northern Western Siberia to consumers across multiple former Soviet republics and parts of Central and Western Europe. The system was designed to handle about 32 billion cubic meters of gas per year, with actual throughput historically around 28 bcm. Its diameter measures 1420 millimeters. Following the incident, recent disclosures indicated that the section delivering gas to Europe was shut down, while Gazprom Transgaz Nizhny Novgorod confirmed that gas supply remained possible through parallel routes. This event is set against the pipeline’s long history, including financing and ceremonial openings in the 1980s, and it traverses the Ural Mountains, crossing more than 600 rivers such as the Ob, Volga, Don, and Dnieper. The overall length runs to around 4,451 kilometers, with a significant segment through Ukraine and a total of 42 compressor stations along its route. In the Ukrainian segment, nine compressor stations were listed, including Romny and Bar, with gas ultimately routed toward the Uzhgorod compressor station near the Slovakia border and toward stations close to Hungary and Romania. This broader context helps explain how a disruption in a single link can ripple through regional gas supplies. This report draws on regional emergency service statements and industry observations for its context and timeline.