Russian arsenal in Toropets destroyed by 70 per cent

Detailed satellite imagery has helped determine the extent of damage to Russia’s 107th Arsenal of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

The MAXAR, PlanetLAB, and Copernicus satellite images were released by researcher MT Anderson and the Schemes project.

Despite the slight cloud cover and smoke around the arsenal, the new images with a resolution of 0.5 meters allowed viewers to assess the real state of the facilities on its territory.

The least damaged was the complex of protected semi-underground ammunition storage facilities in the southern part of the arsenal. It has 42 isolated bunkers, each of which can hold up to 240 tonnes of ammunition.

Only 38 structures could be analyzed in the published photos due to cloud cover: 12 were completely destroyed, while another 7 were severely damaged without signs of internal detonation. The remaining 19 bunkers, mostly in the eastern part of the complex, are visually intact.

The part of the arsenal with above-ground storage facilities in the southeastern part of the arsenal suffered much greater damage as it was completely destroyed.

This part contained 22 above-ground structures, which were spaced 50-80 meters apart and isolated by earthen ramparts.

The photographs clearly show that they have completely burned out or have craters left by the detonation of high explosive munitions.

The southwestern part of the arsenal, which houses ground storage facilities and open ammunition storage, remains more difficult to analyze. It is located in a forested area and is obscured by clouds and smoke.

This is the most vulnerable part of the Russian arsenal, as the ammunition containers were stored in the open air, which made it possible to detonate them by any attack drone. Presumably, the first detonation with the subsequent domino effect began here.

Of the 40 or so zones that were conditionally identified as separate objects, up to 30 were destroyed, burned out or seriously damaged. The rest could not be analyzed at the time of the survey.

As a result of the large-scale fire, flying ammunition and its fragments, residential and transport infrastructure was also seriously damaged or completely destroyed.

The extent of damage to storage sites alone can be preliminarily estimated at 70%. Russia’s 107th Arsenal has suffered critical damage that will require a long time to repair, during which it will be inaccessible.