The city of Belgorod, located in Russia near the border with Ukraine, has just been the victim of an accidental bombing by Russian forces.
An airstrike hit the centre of the city on Thursday evening April 20th. The impact caused a crater more than 20m in diameter. Several people were injured and a building had to be evacuated. Fortunately, no deaths were reported. The victims were taken to hospital and their lives are not in danger.
There is no other justification for this untimely strike than an “abnormal descent of aviation ammunition,” according to the Russian Defence Minister, who also referred to the incident as an “emergency,” the nature of which remains to be proven. The emergency press release normally meets strict conditions, which are not met here. The specialised website air-cosmos.com believes that human error cannot be ruled out:
The crew may have unintentionally dropped the ammunition or it may have been poorly attached [when the plane was prepared on the ground] and thus fallen by chance on Belgorod.
The projectile has not yet been identified, but it is probably a low-powered air-to-ground bomb.
Belgorod has a population of 370,000 and is located about 40 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. Located north of the city of Kharkiv, it has been regularly overflown by Russian aircraft since the beginning of the conflict. The inhabitants live in constant fear of Ukrainian strikes, but the blow, when it came, was from their own side.
