2024-05-14 14:25:22
Russian munitions have fallen 39 times on its own Belgorod region on the border with northeastern Ukraine since the start of the year, Russia’s independent investigative publication The Insider reported on Monday.
The region has suffered the most from the cross-border impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and lies north of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, which Moscow has been actively attacking since Friday. Kharkiv has been under Russian bombardment for several months, often using customized aerial bombs.
According to the publication, one of the weapons that fell on the Belgorod region was a Kh-59 missile, while the other 38 were modified variants of Russian FAB air-launched bombs.
On Monday, the Russian independent news agency Astra reported that Moscow in 2024 mistakenly dropped at least 33 aerial bombs on internationally recognized Russian territory and Moscow-occupied regions of Ukraine between March and May.
Moscow’s military has previously admitted that its planes accidentally bombed Russian-controlled territory. in 2023 In April, the Russian Ministry of Defense described the Su-34 bombing of the city of Belgorod that injured three people as an “accidental release of aerial munitions,” according to Newsweek
The UK government said poor training and fatigue of Russian crews made such incidents more likely.
On Friday, Russia accidentally dropped four FAB bombs on the Belgorod region, and on Saturday dropped another one of the same type, Astra reported. Another FAB bomb reportedly fell on a settlement on the outskirts of the city of Belgorod on Sunday evening.
Russia has transformed its Soviet-era FAB series of bombs from “dumb” unguided munitions into destructive air-guided weapons that are causing problems on Ukraine’s front lines. The bombs are often enhanced with deployable wings and guidance systems that allow them to hover precisely when launched from jets that stay clear of Ukraine’s air defenses.
The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Monday that “explosive objects” fell on the village of Razumnoye, near Belgorod, but gave no details. Russia’s Baza Telegram channel, believed to be linked to Russian security services, reported that a FAB-500 bomb fell near Belgorod on Sunday, but the circumstances were “unknown.”
Earlier this month, open intelligence sources and Ukrainian-affiliated media reported that Moscow accidentally dropped a 250kg FAB bomb on the civilian-populated district of Belgorod in an attempt to target Kharkiv. A. Gladkov said that dozens of houses were damaged, but did not comment on the cause of the explosion.
In April, footage of an unexploded 1,500kg bomb falling in a Russian-held village in eastern Ukraine was widely shared on social media.
2024-05-14 14:25:22