Russia blew up one of its own dams on Monday, according to a group of rogue Russian journalists.
Reporting of the incident does not speculate whether the attack was deliberate or was an accidental strike on its own side during a failed bid to hit a Ukrainian target.
The explosive involved was said to be a Soviet-designed FAB aerial bomb, a weapon which is notoriously imprecise. Russia has accidentally struck its own side a number of times since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, began the war.
This month, Russia hit its own territory with missiles twice in one day, while video that appeared to show a Russian helicopter pilot blowing up a Russian tank went viral in November.
ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images
The latest incident said to have occurred this week was broken as a news story on the social media channel Telegram by ASTRA, a group of independent Russian journalists that includes many who have been censored for their work by the Kremlin.
The alleged friendly fire attack occurred in Belgorod region, which is on the border with Ukraine. The area has seen a surge in violence as the war rages, and just a week into the new year, Russia began to evacuate residents from the area after 25 people were reportedly killed in Ukrainian strikes on December 30.
Ukraine’s attack on Belgorod just before New Year’s Eve was said to be in retaliation for the recent deadly wave of Russian air strikes, with analysts suggesting it was an attempt to bring the war home to ordinary Russians. One scared resident of the city told Reuters that, if so, the tactic was proving terrifyingly effective.
“People realized there really is a war going on and it’s come now to Belgorod, maybe not for the first time but the most grave and frightening,” the person said.
An ASTRA Telegram post on Monday said (according to a translation): “A Russian plane dropped an aerial bomb on a dam in the Belgorod region.
“On January 21, a FAB-250 aerial bomb was discovered in a pond near the Ionovka village.
“According to ASTRA, the dam was partially damaged as a result of the ammunition being dropped. There were no casualties.”
Dams have been a key battleground in the war and in June 2023 international observers were horrified when the Kakhovka dam—part of a hydroelectric power station—was targeted and collapsed. Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the breach, although experts told Newsweek that there is growing evidence that Russia was responsible.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry and Ukrainian Ministry of Defense via email for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.