A Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber accidentally discharged a bomb over the city of Belgorod, a metropolis of over 400,000 inhabitants, on Thursday evening. The incident left a 65-foot-wide crater, launched a car onto a rooftop, and caused damage to nearby structures. State media referred to the event as an unintentional or emergency release of aerial ordnance.
The twin-engine aircraft was flying over Belgorod, situated just 24.8 miles north of the Ukrainian border, when the unintentional munition drop occurred. RIA Novosti, a state news agency, reported the event. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the accidental release of air ordnance while the plane was flying over the city.
The explosion left a massive impact crater with a 65-foot radius, as reported by Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region. The blast also caused damage to several apartment buildings and left two people injured, according to the mayor of Belgorod, Valentin Demidov.
The Su-34 aircraft has the capacity to carry various types of munitions, including air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, as well as guided and unguided bombs. It is unclear which type of munition fell on Belgorod.
Moscow's Su-34 fleet has experienced significant losses since the beginning of the war, with some estimates suggesting that more than 10% of the fleet has been destroyed. Oryx, an open-source intelligence website based in the Netherlands, has documented 19 aircraft losses in both combat and non-combat situations.
Peter Layton, a visiting fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and a former Royal Australian Air Force officer, found the Belgorod event unusual for several reasons. Emergency release of ordnance typically occurs in a "safe" mode to prevent detonation, and pilots would usually jettison bombs in unpopulated areas.
The Belgorod region has been the site of multiple explosions and bombings since Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022. Earlier this week, a village in the region near the Ukrainian border was reportedly targeted by Kyiv's forces. The involvement of Ukraine in that incident has not been confirmed.
