Russia accidentally bombs own city near Ukraine

According to Russian state media, at least three people were injured when a fighter jet fired a weapon at the city of Belgorod.

A Russian Sukhoi-34 supersonic warplane accidentally fired a weapon into the town of Belgorod near Ukraine late Thursday, causing an explosion and injuring three people.

Video footage from the site showed piles of concrete on the street, several damaged cars and a building with shattered windows. One shot showed what appeared to be a car upside down on the roof of a store.

The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, declared a state of emergency overnight, saying that there was a crater 20 meters wide on one of the main streets. Four cars and four apartment buildings were damaged, he added.

Three people were injured, he said.

“Thank God there are no deaths,” Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement on Telegram, adding that an apartment building had been evacuated overnight.

The Russian Tass news agency quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying that a Su-34 supersonic fighter-bomber accidentally fired munitions.

“When a Sukhoi Su-34 air force aircraft flew over the city of Belgorod, there was an accidental discharge of aviation ammunition,” Tass quoted the defense ministry as saying.

It was not said what kind of weapon it was.

The ministry said some buildings were damaged and announced an investigation was already underway, Tass said.

The Belgorod region is one of the parts of southern Russia where targets such as fuel and ammunition supplies have been rocked by explosions since the start of what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.