The death toll from the explosion at the Plastmass plant in Kopeysk, Chelyabinsk region, has risen to 23. According to the outlet, on the evening of October 22, 2025, a powerful blast during a shift change before the night shift destroyed the central workshop. The bodies of 16 workers have been found, while the remains of seven others still have to be identified. Several injured workers with burns remain in hospital.
Russia’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case over alleged violations of industrial safety rules. In the first days after the incident, however, regional authorities and state media did not name the plant, and Governor Aleksei Teksler referred only to an emergency at “one of the enterprises.” According to the article’s sources, relatives of the missing searched for information in local chat groups and forced officials to publish the victims’ names only two days later.
The plant has operated since 1939, became part of Rostec in 2019, and produces not only industrial explosives but also military goods, including munitions and S-8 unguided rockets. Since 2024, it has been under US and Canadian sanctions. Boris Zolotarevsky, founder of the Chelyabinsk of the Future project, said production volumes had increased fivefold since the start of the war.
Authorities promised 10 million rubles to each victim’s family and 1 to 2 million rubles to the injured. At the same time, not everyone in the city accepts the official explanation of safety violations: some residents suspect sabotage or a drone strike, although officials twice denied any drone attack. Zolotarevsky said the city remains tense and that there is still no clarity about what caused the blast.
“I can’t recall this level of information concealment for a long time,” Boris Zolotarevsky said.