A Russian military aircraft mistakenly bombed Russia by dropping two bombs in the Belgorod region, as reported by UK intelligence, making it the fourth occurrence this month.
The UK Ministry of Defence highlighted these events in an intelligence update on Tuesday, referencing information from the independent Telegram news channel Astra.
As per the report, a Russian plane released two FAB-250 bombs in the Belgorod region last Saturday. One bomb landed on a farm in Postnikov, while the other hit a street in Streletskaya, prompting the evacuation of approximately 150 nearby residents.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported, and both bombs were defused on Sunday.
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This marks the fourth incident this month and the fifth within the last 12 months, according to the MOD.
Incidences of Russia bombing itself
The initial incident in 2024 occurred on January 2 when a Russian military aircraft mistakenly dropped a munition, causing damage to nine residential properties in Petropavlovka, within Russia’s Voronezh Oblast, according to the MOD’s intelligence update at the time.
Less than a week later, on January 8, Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, reported that a plane dropped a FAB-250 bomb on the eastern town of Rubizhne, situated in Russia-occupied Luhansk.
During that time, the MOD suggested that these munition accidents were likely the result of insufficient training and crew fatigue, leading to errors in mission execution.
On Tuesday, the MOD stated that a combination of flawed procedures for arming aircraft before flights, poor execution of missions by aircrew, and crew fatigue probably caused such incidents.
“The growing frequency of these incidents likely indicates a level of fatigue among Russian frontline air and ground crews, as well as revealing deficiencies in training,” noted the MOD.
Similar mishaps occurred in Russia last year, including the accidental downing of a prized Su-35 fighter jet in October, the bombing of the Russia-occupied settlement of Nova Kakhovka in September, and an airstrike on the Russian border city of Belgorod in April.
