Russian Warplane Accidentally Bombs Own City; Russia Mistakenly Bombs Own City; Russia Evacuates Thousands in Border City It Accidentally Bombed; Allies Move to Bolster Ukrainian Tank Forces Ahead of Counteroffensive, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

By admin On Apr 24, 2023

NY POST: Russian warplane accidentally bombs own city, injures 3:

A Russian fighter jet accidentally bombed the Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine, causing a massive blast that injured three people and lifted a car onto the roof of a store.

The incident involving a Sukhoi-34 supersonic plane took place late Thursday, causing an explosion and leaving a huge crater near the center of Belgorod, located just 25 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Video from the scene showed piles of detritus littering the street, multiple mangled cars and a building with shattered windows.

The footage also showed a car resting upside down on the roof of a supermarket along a major thoroughfare called Prospekt Vatutina.

Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced a state of emergency overnight and confirmed that there was a crater measuring 65 feet across on one of the city’s main streets.

Three residents had been injured in the blast, and four cars and four apartment buildings sustained damage, he added.

“Thank God there are no dead,” Gladkov said in a statement on Telegram. —>READ MORE HERE

WSJ: Russia Mistakenly Bombs Own City:

Russia said it had mistakenly bombed its own territory late Thursday as Ukraine’s Western backers met to discuss future military deliveries to the country to assist in Kyiv’s expected counteroffensive.

Moscow said that one of its jet fighters had accidentally dropped a weapon over the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border, causing an explosion and leaving several injured.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the region, said on Friday that three people were injured in the incident, according to Russian state newswire TASS. The blast left a crater of some 66 feet on a central street in the city and damaged nearby cars and apartments.

Verified security-camera footage of the area posted on social media on Friday appeared to show a powerful explosion near a busy street at night.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that during a flight of a Su-34 aircraft, “an emergency release of an air ordnance occurred.”

The Belgorod region has been regularly hit by explosions and shelling since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine in February 2022. Mr. Gladkov told Russian President Vladimir Putin in January that 25 people had been killed and 96 injured in the region since the start of the conflict.

While Russia has rained missiles on Ukraine for months, seeking to destroy its critical infrastructure and deplete its air defenses, it has used its air force sparingly on the front line because of what experts said were concerns about Ukrainian air defenses.

But as Kyiv prepares for a spring offensive aimed at recovering some of its lost territory, defense experts expect Russia to increase the use of warplanes.

A recent leak of classified U.S. documents revealed concerns in the U.S. about Ukraine running low on ammunition for its air-defense systems. —>READ MORE HERE

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