17 people were in the explosives workshop of a plant in the Ryazan region when a powerful explosion thundered there.

According to media reports, the entire shift was killed.

Among the victims are foremen, apparatchiks, transporters.

RT spoke with friends and relatives of the victims, as well as residents of the village of Lesnoy - they talked about the victims of the Ryazan disaster.

Played in the hockey league

“They are all good family men, athletes,” says Viktor Melnikov, who knows several of those killed at the plant near Ryazan.

- Anikin Victor - my best friend was.

He is a hockey player, we played together in the league.

The shirt-guy, will give the last.

He always helped his people.

He was probably dearer to me than all my relatives and friends. "

Victor said that many of those killed in the explosion were excellent athletes, and with two of them, Anikin and Kamalov, they played in the same team as part of the local hockey club Lesnoy.

Melnikov admitted that he himself brought his friends to hockey - before that, men had played football professionally.

  • Kamalov and Anikin in the center in the second row

  • © Photo from personal archive

“There are photos of them from football on social networks, they were brought up by football players,” recalls Anikin and Kamalov, a friend of the deceased.

- We played at the Russian championship.

Earlier, in youth and in childhood, we went to competitions a lot: Vladimir, Pskov, Penza ... And we won.

Kamalov has a son, he is also interested in football.

They went to Tambov, were screened at CSKA, where the scouts selected the guys.

This year, his son entered the Higher Military Airborne School.

Clever guy".

"Didn't hear the explosion"

Residents of Lesnoye, who spoke with RT, find it difficult to describe the moment of the explosion at the plant - according to them, in the village itself, almost no one noticed anything unusual.

The common-law wife of the transporter Mikhail Sychev who died there, Marina, did not hear the explosion either - at first she did not believe the stories about the accident in which all the workers died. 

  • © Photo from personal archive

According to the woman, in the morning Mikhail went to work, "everything was as usual."

A few hours later, an acquaintance called her with terrible news.

“I learned about what happened from our (with Mikhail

. - RT

) common firefighter friend,” the woman said.

- He called and said that supposedly where Misha works, a workshop exploded, that everyone died.

I didn't believe it.

I didn't even hear any explosion.

And now it turns out like this. "

Marina and Mikhail were not officially married, but the couple have a joint child - a three-month-old daughter who is now left without a father.

Marina recalls that just recently Mikhail celebrated his birthday, invited colleagues home from work.

“Misha had his birthday only recently, on October 10th.

Everyone from his work came to visit us, congratulated.

And now I see all these names on the list of the dead, ”says Marina.

Other residents of Lesnoye did not hear the explosion either - according to one of the interlocutors of RT, people learned about the incident by phone or from the news.

At the time of the explosion, some local residents heard only hiss or felt a slight shaking, and then a fire started at the plant.

However, local residents who saw footage from the scene believe that the explosion was powerful.

“There, a woman from the National Guard was on duty on guard.

In the photographs, her booth was blown up by a blast wave, "a former employee of Elastic LLC, who lives in Lesnoy, told RT.

He added that in the burned-out workshop they were engaged not in production, but in the disposal of ammunition.

Worked at the factory for a long time

The sister of Malik Papazyan, who died in the explosion near Ryazan, told RT that the man had worked at the plant in Lesnoy for more than ten years.

According to the woman, Malik was a simple hard worker, he grew up in a large family - the man had six brothers and sisters.

“There were seven of us in the family, one has already died, and now here is Malik ... He was young, a good guy.

Didn't drink, except on holidays.

They were not married with his wife, they lived in a civil marriage.

There were no children either, they didn't have time.

He has a little goddaughter, my daughter, ”says Papazyan's relative.

She added that her brother loved his work at the plant, praised the team and was friends with colleagues.

He refused to leave for another enterprise.

“He said he was happy with everything,” recalls Malika's sister.

At the same time, a relative of another deceased, Vyacheslav Petrikov, in an interview with RT, expressed her dissatisfaction with the management of the plant.

According to Ekaterina Velmyakina, Petrikov often complained that his already modest salary was being delayed.

Despite this, Vyacheslav worked at the plant for a long time and did not dare to look for another place.

Velmyakina explained that Petrikov has always been a gentle, homely and very kind person.

  • © Photo from personal archive

“He lived in the village since childhood together with his mother, he was a very kind person by himself, there were no special hobbies.

Like everyone else, he loved to climb in the computer.

He never had any bad habits (he didn't drink, didn't smoke), he was always so homely.

He had no wife, no children, he spent all the time with his mother, "said the interlocutor of RT.