Three dead in Russia
Sergeant accidentally ignites grenade in barracks – he probably wanted to gain authority
A Russian soldier during an exercise. Fatal accidents happen again and again in Russia.
© Konstantin Mihalchevskiy / Sputnik Russia PUBLICATION / Imago Images
In Russia, a corporal apparently caused a fatal accident that claimed the lives of at least three of his subordinates. In a dormitory he is said to have handled a hand grenade to gain authority.
A Russian soldier apparently accidentally detonated a grenade in a military barracks in the Russian-Ukrainian border region of Belgorod. According to the Interfax news agency three soldiers were killed and 16 injured. Eight other people are missing.
“As a result of an accidental detonation of a hand grenade by a non-commissioned officer in a dormitory of the military assembly center in the Korochansky district of the Belgorod region, there was an explosion of ammunition. A fire broke out,” the rescue service said in a statement.
According to information from Interfax, the non-commissioned officer responsible for the accident is in the hospital.
The incident happened as early as last Saturday. However, the Russian Ministry of Defense has not yet taken any official position on the matter.
Grenade from the 50’s
the Telegram channel Baza reports that the explosion was allegedly caused by a train driver from the Sverdlovsk region (his name was not published). All of the dead and injured are said to be mobilized soldiers – men who were drafted into the Russian army as part of the mobilization.
Baza writes that the corporal used the hand grenade to “gain authority from his subordinates”. It is said to have been an RGD-5 grenade. This Soviet hand grenade was developed in the early 1950s and entered the Soviet Army’s arsenal in 1954.
After the explosion in the building of the House of Culture, where the mobilized soldiers were housed, a fire spread over an area of about 450 square meters, reports Baza. It took firefighters four hours to get the fire under control. The fire site is therefore still closed, as there could still be duds on the territory.
Fatal accidents occur again and again in Russia during exercises and the training of those mobilized.