1/ Corruption may have contributed to Ukraine's ability to destroy Russia's 107th GRAU arsenal at Toropets. The site's construction was overseen by former Deputy Minister of Defence General Dmitry Bulgakov, who was arrested for fraud in July 2024. ⬇️
2/ NASA FIRMS data shows fires across the entirety of the arsenal, which is estimated to have stored as much as 19,000 tons of explosives. The scale of the inferno suggests major failures in fire safety at the site.
https://x.com/Blake_Allen13/status/1836254139132592329
3/ The most likely contributing factors are that the the bunkers and warehouses were either built cheaply, without enough protection against fires and explosions, or were built too close together, enabling the spread of fire from one building to another. (Both are possible.) 
4/ When the facility was opened in 2018, Bulgakov hailed it as providing "reliable and safe storage, protects against air and missile strikes and even against the damaging effects of a nuclear explosion."
5/ He said that "the arsenal in Toropets allows us to protect stockpiles of missiles and ammunition from external influences and ensure their safety and explosion and fire safety. The full load of each arsenal storage facility is up to 240 tons."
6/ Bulgakov claimed that compared to old Soviet-era arsenals, the modernised site represented the difference between wearing "a bulletproof vest that protects against bullets and shrapnel" or not wearing any body armour at all.
7/ In practice, ammunition safety seems to have been neglected at the site. As one Russian pro-war blogger notes, on Yandex satellite images it can be seen that "there are endless stacks of ammunition all over the facility. In the open air."
8/ Russian blogger Roman Alekhin comments with dismay: "I wouldn't be surprised if only the sauna and cafe survived the explosion. But what kind of world-class storage facility is this if it was penetrated by a UAV, or rather even its debris?"
9/ "Not a "Kinzhal" [missile], but a UAV... What is it protected against - an air rifle? ...
The main protection we need is protection from corrupt officials, thieves and fools in the Ministry of Defence. And then world-class arsenals will be truly protected."
The main protection we need is protection from corrupt officials, thieves and fools in the Ministry of Defence. And then world-class arsenals will be truly protected."
10/ Bulgakov was fired from his job in September 2022. He was known as a protegé of the notoriously corrupt defence minister Sergei Shoigu. After Shoigu himself was dismissed, Bulgakov was one of a number of Shoigu's cronies to be arrested on fraud charges, in July 2024.
11/ The then commander of the Western Military District, Colonel General Andrei Kartapolov, was also involved in the arsenal's construction. He is now a State Duma deputy and regularly appears on TV as a commentator on the war in Ukraine. He may now have some questions to answer.
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