The Bryansk governor said there were no casualties after an “unidentified explosive device” went off at 10.17am Moscow time (8.17am BST).
Pictures shared on social media showed several tank carriages laying on their side and dark grey smoke billowing into the air at the site of the derailment.
Russian Railways, the country’s rail operator, said the locomotive and seven freight wagons were derailed and the locomotive caught fire.
“An unidentified explosive device went off at the 136-kilometre mark on the Bryansk-Unecha railway line, derailing a freight train,” Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said in a post on Telegram.
Russian authorities have claimed the region, which borders both Ukraine and Belarus, has seen multiple attacks by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 14 months since Russia invaded.
The site of the incident is around 40 miles north of Russia’s border with Ukraine.
Bogomaz did not say who Russia believed was responsible for the attack.
Separately, the governor of Russia’s Leningrad region near St. Petersburg said a power line had been blown up overnight and an explosive device found near a second line.
Governor Alexander Drozdenko posted photos of destroyed power lines and metal supports on Telegram on Monday morning.
He said Russia’s FSB federal security service was working on the site, and also did not say who he believed was responsible for the incident.
It comes as Russia unleashed a fresh volley of missiles on Ukraine overnight, causing huge blazes in a city in the east, damaging dozens of homes and wounding at least 34 people.
The attack on Pavlohrad, a city and railway hub, came during the second wave of nationwide missile strikes in three days.
A huge crater had been blasted in the backyard of a house that was strewn with debris on Pavlohrad’s outskirts, with nearby homes badly damaged.
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Mykola Lukashuk, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region council, said the attack had damaged 19 apartment blocks, 25 houses, three schools, three kindergartens and several shops.
The 34 wounded included five children, the region’s governor said.
The city is located in southeastern Ukraine, behind the main eastern and southern front lines in the war.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had struck using high-precision long-range air and sea-based missiles against “Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities".
“The objectives of the strike were achieved," it said in a statement.
“The work of enterprises making ammunition, weapons and military equipment for Ukrainian troops has been disrupted."
