Following a bomb that injured two persons and created a massive crater in the city of Belgorod on Thursday, local authorities stated that one of Russia’s fighter jets had lost ammunition over the area near the Ukrainian border.
Since the beginning of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Russian jets have routinely conducted raids above Belgorod.
Local authorities in Belgorod reported a large explosion on Thursday night, saying it had left a crater in the middle of the city and injured two ladies.
The detonation, according to Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod area, created a shock wave that wrecked four apartments, four automobiles, and downed power poles.
“An explosion took place,” Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that investigators and representatives of the emergencies ministry were at the scene.
He claimed that the explosion had left a “huge” hole in the middle of the city that was 20 meters wide (65 feet).
Gladkov and Valentin Demidov, the mayor of Belgorod, shared photographs of the damage on social media.
One image showed a group of glum-faced people huddling outside an apartment block, with a fire engine close and one woman carrying a little puppy.
Other pictures showed the blast-damaged interiors of apartments.
Local officials declined to comment on the explosion’s cause, but the Russian defense ministry issued a statement claiming that a fighter aircraft had run out of ammo over Belgorod.
“During the flight of the Su-34 aircraft of the aerospace forces over the city of Belgorod, an abnormal descent of aviation ammunition has occurred,” the ministry said.
The event occurred at 22:15 local time, according to the statement that was distributed by Russian news outlets.
Gladkov cited preliminary data in stating that one woman was hospitalized with a head injury and another woman was given first assistance on the site.
Residents of the destroyed buildings would temporarily relocate to motels, according to Demidov.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin dispatched soldiers to Ukraine in February 2022, Belgorod has been constantly shelled.
Gladkov informed Putin in January that 25 people had died and more than 90 had been injured in the area since the attack began.
16 people, including numerous children, were killed when an SU-34 jet collided with a residential structure in the southern city of Yeysk in October 2022. Yeysk is also close to the Ukrainian border.
