On the morning of September 1, 2026, a powerful explosion rocked the city of Koltushi in Leningrad Oblast, located near St. Petersburg, followed by a large-scale fire. According to reports from local residents, the fire broke out in the area of the agro-firm "Izbiratel." A column of thick smoke rising to a considerable height was visible from many kilometers away from the epicenter of the incident. The Ukrainian outlet RBC-Ukraine, citing data from the Telegram channel "Astra," recorded the event in the morning hours of September 1.
Official version: incident at an illegal dump
Russian authorities and media outlets offered their own assessment of what happened. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM), the explosion and the subsequent fire occurred on the territory of an illegal dump in Koltushi. The outlets KP.ru and "Rosbalt" confirmed that the cause of the fire was precisely an unauthorized dump, on which flammable or explosive materials were presumably stored. Local residents, however, note that a sharp bang was heard before the active burning began, which, in their opinion, points to the explosive nature of the incident.
Fire at the port of Ust-Luga: drone attack
In parallel with the incident in Koltushi, the governor of Leningrad Oblast, Alexander Drozdenko, reported on the elimination of a fire at the port of Ust-Luga that arose during the night hours of September 1. According to him, the fire at the port was the result of a drone attack. Thus, in Leningrad Oblast, at least two major incidents involving fires were recorded within a single day, each of which, according to officials, has a different nature.
Broad context: strikes on August 31 — the night of September 1
The incidents in Koltushi and Ust-Luga occurred against the backdrop of a series of strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on military and logistical facilities on the territory of Russia and in the temporarily occupied regions. Thus, on August 31, drones attacked the Wildberries logistics center in Yekaterinburg, resulting in fires on the facility's territory. According to available data, this is already the eighth of the company's ten largest warehouses to be disabled due to Ukrainian strikes since mid-July 2026. That same night, a radar station and a command-and-staff vehicle of the S-400 air defense missile system in Bryansk Oblast, a communications node in Belgorod Oblast, as well as a drone control point in the Gulai Pole area were hit. Strikes were carried out on facilities from the temporarily occupied Crimea to the rear regions of Russia, including sites for the storage, preparation, and launch of strike drones in the temporarily occupied Donetsk.
Contradictory data
There is a significant discrepancy between Ukrainian and Russian sources in their assessment of the explosion in Koltushi. Ukrainian outlets (RBC-Ukraine, the Telegram channel "Astra") present the event in the context of ongoing military operations and attacks on rear facilities, without specifying the cause of the explosion, but placing it among incidents linked to the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Russian sources, by contrast, clearly point to a domestic/technogenic cause: EMERCOM and regional media speak of an explosion at an illegal dump. At the same time, the very fact of the explosion and the subsequent large-scale fire is confirmed by both sides and by local residents. The final cause of the incident has not been officially established at this time, and both versions remain in effect until the investigation is completed.
The situation in Koltushi continues to develop. As of the morning of September 1, fire crews are working at the scene of the fire. No additional details about casualties or the scale of the damage were available at the time of publication.
