Strike on Russian Federation’s GRAU arsenal in Volgograd region: large-scale fire, explosions and evacuation of population
On the night of 12 February, a strike was carried out on the arsenal of the Russian Federation's Main Missile and Artillery Command near the village of Kotluban in the Volgograd region.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to the governor of the Volgograd region, Andrey Bocharov, and monitoring Telegram channels.
The strike caused a large-scale fire and detonation. Bocharov stressed that "in order to ensure the safety of the civilian population from the threat of detonation during firefighting, the evacuation of the population of the settlement of Kotluban has been announced and is being carried out."
According to monitoring channels, the strike hit the Russian occupiers' arsenal for storing and modernising rocket and artillery weapons. Local residents reported on social media about powerful explosions and a strong fire in the area of the military facility.
The regional governor stated that Russian air defence forces had allegedly repelled a missile attack. According to him, units from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation were involved in extinguishing the fire.
What is known about this arsenal?
The GRAU arsenal in Kotluban (Volgograd Region, the Russian Federation) is a military depot of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defence for the storage and modernisation of missile and artillery weapons and ammunition.
It is located far from the Ukrainian border - approximately 600+ km east of the front line, but is one of the Russian army's important logistics hubs.
Previous strikes
This object has been mentioned in reports on numerous occasions:
- In September 2024, the Ukrainian Defence Forces attacked the GRAU arsenal in Kotluban, causing a fire, but the flames did not spread deep into the ammunition depot.
- At the same time, Russian public sources reported that a train carrying Iranian missiles had arrived at the facility before the attack.
