A Russian fighter jet accidentally bombed the city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine on April 20, according to officials, damaging an unspecified number of buildings and injuring at least three people.
“At around 22:15 Moscow time on April 20, when a Su-34 plane of the Russian Aerospace Forces was performing a flight above the city of Belgorod, an emergency release of an air ordnance occurred,” Russia’s Defense ministry said in a
statement, according to a translation by state-owned news agency TASS.
It did not identify the weapon that was released. The
Su-34 is a supersonic fighter bomber that can carry a range of missiles, including air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface missiles, guided and unguided bombs, and rockets.
The ministry added that an investigation into the incident was underway.
Russian jets have regularly flown over Belgorod, a city with a population of more than 400,000 people located roughly 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) north of the border with Ukraine, since Russia began invading its neighbor in February 2022, The Moscow Times
reports.While Russian officials stated that “no casualties” occurred during Thursday’s incident, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on his Telegram channel on Friday that three people had been injured during the incident.
Known Casualties, Governor Says
“About yesterday’s blasts in the city of Belgorod. Three were injured, one person refused hospital treatment, one resident was diagnosed with a closed brain injury, a concussion, [her] life is not in danger, and all the necessary aid is being provided. And one elderly woman felt ill, [her] blood pressure got very high. She was hospitalized and is currently in doctors’ care,” he wrote, according to
TASS.The governor had earlier said that four apartments in one apartment building had been damaged by the blast. Residents of those buildings had been offered temporary accommodation at a hotel, he said.
“The building will be examined by specialists. If the supporting wall is damaged, we will relocate the whole section of the building,” he said. “Also, four cars were damaged.”
In a separate post on Telegram, Gladkov said the explosion had left a giant crater roughly 20 meters wide (65 feet), had downed power lines, and damaged several parked vehicles, according to a translation by The Moscow Times.
Video
footage shared online appeared to show the smoke billowing from the ground after the bomb touched down on a bust street at night. Seconds later, a huge explosion occurs, sending vehicles and piles of concrete flying.
Images
posted to Twitter show what appears to be a giant crater in the ground and at least one vehicle turned upside down.
In January, Gladkov
told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting that at least 25 people had been killed and more than 90 injured in Belgorod since the start of Russia’s invasion.
At that same meeting, Putin praised the “practical combat work” of Russia’s air defense, which he said has shown it is “one of the best in the world.”
