Moscow said the bomb was accidentally dropped by a Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft while flying over Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine, on Thursday evening after local authorities reported a loud explosion that injured three people and started a fire. huge crater in the center of the city.

“During the flight of the Su-34 aircraft of the Aerospace Forces over the city of Belgorod, an unnatural fall of aviation ammunition occurred,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

According to a report transmitted by Russian news agencies, the incident took place around 22:15 (local and Greek time).

Russian warplanes frequently fly over Belgorod as part of a “special military operation,” a war launched by Moscow against Ukraine in February 2022.

Local authorities reported a massive explosion in Belgorod earlier on Easter Thursday night, injuring three women and creating a huge crater at an intersection in the city center.

“There was an explosion,” said Vyacheslav Gladkov, Governor of the Belgorod Region, adding that he created crater with a diameter of 20 meters at the intersection of the central roads of the city of the same name.

Gladkoff said one woman was taken to hospital with a head injury and a second woman was treated at the scene. Another woman required hospitalization, the regional governor added on Friday.

“Houses were destroyed, the shock wave damaged parked cars and power lines,” he added on Telegram.

He noted that investigators and employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations left for the scene.

Mr. Gladkov and Belgorod Mayor Valentin Demidov also posted photos of the explosion site on social media.

One of them shows people huddled in front of an apartment building, including a woman holding a small dog in her arms, and a fire engine is visible in the distance.

Mr. Demidov uploaded images to Telegram showing part of the asphalt destroyed by the explosion, debris in front of the building and the interior of the destroyed apartment. The mayor said that people living in damaged houses would be temporarily relocated to hotels.

The Belgorod region has been hit several times, sometimes fatally, usually by Moscow in Ukraine. In January, Mr. Gladkov said that 25 people had been killed and 90 wounded in the region since the start of the war.

In October 2022, a Su-34 bomber crashed into a residential building in the southern Russian city of Yeysk, also close to the border with Ukraine, killing 16 people, including children.

In July 2022, Mr. Gladkov reported that explosions near the center of Belgorod had killed four people and injured four others. The Russian military later claimed to have intercepted three rockets fired at the city.

Source: RES-IPE