In an accident, Russia experienced a self-inflicted blunder near its border with Ukraine. An X-59 missile was found in a field near the village of Krasnoye in the Belgorod region, an area situated close to the Ukrainian border, which is home to multiple Russian military bases and training facilities. The region has witnessed a series of explosions during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s incursion into Ukraine, with local officials frequently noting the presence of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the vicinity. The military had to neutralise it immediately. Fortunately, there was no damage or casualties, the independent Russian media reported.
This latest incident adds to a series of similar occurrences. Throughout this year, there have been multiple incidents documented where Russia’s military inadvertently released munitions and missiles on its own territory. Astra noted that just in March and April, Russian forces mistakenly dropped at least 21 aerial bombs from their aircraft onto Russian land or on territories under Ukrainian occupation.
Russian authorities often try to hide such incidents, calling them “abnormal discharge of ammunition.” Moscow also claimed that there were emergency jettisons of aviation munitions.
It is not an isolated case of self-bombing that happened around Belgorod. This is the second time this year that Russia accidentally dropped Soviet-designed FAB aerial bombs on Belgorod. According to Astra, on January 27, Russia inadvertently released Soviet-designed FAB aerial bombs on Belgorod twice in one day. Thankfully, the bombs didn’t explode or kill anyone and were defused the next day.
A similar incident involving a FAB bomb happened over one of its own dams in Belgorod on January 21.
On January 13, the Krasnodar region in southern Russia’s North Caucasus region became a drop zone for Kalibr missiles twice in one day. According to Astra, the first Russian Kalibr missile fell between the villages of Pavlovskaya and Atamanskaya in the morning, while another missile fell in the evening in a field. No reports of casualties and damage have emerged.
The information came from local emergency services and from Russian military analyst Ian Matveev and analysts from the Conflict Intelligence Team. These various internal incidents contrast with the deliberate deployment of missiles like the Kh-59 in strikes against targets in Ukraine. In one such confirmed attack, Russia fired a Kh-59 missile at a television infrastructure facility in Kharkiv.
