Accidental airdrop on Belgorod: Russian jet shells Russian city

A massive explosion tore a crater 20 meters in radius in the center of the Russian city of Belgorod. Three people were injured. According to the Defense Ministry, a Russian fighter jet accidentally shot down ammunition.

The Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border was rocked by a massive explosion on Thursday evening. According to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, a Russian Air Force Sukhoi-34 fighter jet shot down unplanned ammunition while flying over Belgorod.

A statement said: “On April 20, 2023 at around 10:15 p.m. Moscow time (9:15 p.m. CET), an air force Su-34 aircraft was in flight over the city of Belgorod and an unplanned shooting down of ammunition occurred.” Investigations are therefore ongoing.

Three injured, destroyed apartments and power poles

Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Russian military planes have regularly flown over Belgorod. According to local officials, the explosion tore a huge crater with a radius of about 20 meters in the city center and injured three people. At first there was talk of two injured women. One of the women was taken to the hospital for a head injury and the other was treated at the scene. No one is in mortal danger, it said.

The city and region authorities did not comment on the cause of the explosion. Investigators are on site, said Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. According to him, the shock wave triggered by the detonation damaged four apartments and four cars and caused nine power poles to fall.

Residents temporarily in hotels

Governor Gladkov and Mayor Valentin Demidow published pictures of the damage. Among other things, the interior of devastated apartments could be seen. Governor Gladkow said all residents of a damaged apartment building had been temporarily relocated. Some stayed with relatives, others in the hotel.

Since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the city of Belgorod has come under repeated shelling. In January, Gladkow announced that a total of 25 people had been killed and more than 90 others injured in the region of the same name since February 2022. In October, a Russian Sukhoi-34 plane crashed into a residential complex in the city of Yeysk on the Azov Sea near Ukraine. 16 people died, including several children.