Whoops! Sorry About That!

"As a Sukhoi Su-34 air force plane was flying over the city of Belgorod, there was an accidental discharge of aviation ammunition."

Russian Defence Ministry

 

"The residents of Belgorod were faced with tough ordeals last night."

"Together, I think we will go through them."

"[Sappers examining the site of Thursday’s blast found and decided to detonate an] explosive object [that was] in the immediate vicinity of residential buildings."

"The bomb was removed from the residential area. Residents are being delivered back to their homes."

 Governor of Belgorod province, Vyacheslav Gladkov

Damage after an explosion in the city in Belgorod, Russia, on Wednesday.   Russian Mayor Valentin Demidov via Telegram / AFP via Getty Images

A Russian city located fairly close to Russia's border with Ukraine had a sudden surprise on Thursday evening when a bomb fell close to the city centre. The first impression was that this was an attack by Ukrainian forces, but it was not. In the annals of modern warfare such incidents are now identified as 'friendly fire', the inadvertent attacks that take place against one's own; in this instance a Russian supersonic warplane dropped not one, but two bombs on a Russian city, mistaking it for a Ukrainian city.

The training of Russian pilots may be missing some critical points in observance and performance techniques. Three people were injured, and the town now has a massive crater in what was an ordinary-enough street. Piles of twisted metal and great chunks of concrete scattered on the street can be seen from a video shot at the scene. There were a number of damaged cars and nearby apartment buildings suffered blasted windows and destroyed walls.

The blast was sufficiently strong to flip a car skyward, landing it on a nearby shop roof. In total 17 buildings suffered damages, while residents of a nearby apartment block were evacuated until such time that damages can be assessed and repairs undertaken. Some Russian war bloggers were convinced this was a Ukraine military attack, urging the Russian military to strike back, harder.

 Antiwar Russian civilians on the other hand, took to social media to classify the incident as an example of a meme reflecting the Kremlin's tendency to oppose or attempt harming the West with measures that invariably wind up harming its own citizens instead. 

Russian ground staff load a Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bomber with weapons at the Hmeymim air base near Latakia, Syria, in a handout photo released by Russia's Defense Ministry. REUTERS/Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation/Handout

"The FAB [glide bomb] exploded as normal; the fuse was set on delay, so apparently the target was something underground: bunkers, cellars, workshops and the like. Belgorod got lucky today", wrote a prominent Russian military blogger on the Telegram messaging app, so popular with Russians. He was referring to a UMPK FAB-500M62 glide bomb whose wings failed to initiate, though it was not clear what type of weapon had exploded in Belgorod.

"It would all have been fine except for the chosen flight path over the city, which at night glows like a huge lantern and it's impossible not to see it", commented the blogger. "You can't make mistakes like that. This should never ever happen again."

 

Ukraine had warned earlier in the month that Russia has brought guided bombs into its arsenal, like the modified FAB-500 bomb. A type of bomb it has used to target Ukrainian defences in Avdlivka in the Donetsk region. The FAB-500 is a 500-kiilogram Soviet-made general-purpose bomb with a  highly explosive warhead.

 

A frame grab taken from video released by Russia's Defense Ministry shows a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber dropping a bomb in the air over Syria. REUTERS/Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation/Handout

Recently,the Russian military has been using these bombs "from a distance that is unreachable for Ukrainian air defence", pointed out Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian air force. Russia, he added, may be increasing production of these bombs, outfitting them with wings and GPS navigation. Only recently has Russia adopted this method of turning simple bombs into guided ones and speculation is that this is Moscow's way of replenishing its depleted stockpiles of cruise and ballistic missiles with relatively cheap and effective weapons.

 

"More often, the enemy uses guided air bombs weighing 500 kg along the entire front line. There are signs of preparation for the mass use of 1,500 kg KABs."

"The planes of the Russians do not enter the zone of damage of our air defence, striking remotely at the front line and near-frontline cities", explained Mykola Oleschuk, commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

 

Since Russia invaded Ukraine over a year ago, the Belgorod region, its capital city a few miles from the Ukrainian border, has served as one of the key staging grounds for Russian troops. The drama of Thursday night's accidental bombing in Belgorod came to a conclusion on Saturday, when another explosive device was found at the site where the first one exploded, resulting in seventeen apartment buildings being  evacuated.

 

This handout photo posted to the Telegram channel of Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov shows damaged apartments building near the crater after an explosion in Belgorod, Russia, April 21, 2023, caused by a Russian Su-34 warplane accidentally discharging ammunition over the city.  Telegram/Vyacheslav Gladkov/AP