Russian air defense accidentally fired at and killed Moscow’s own paratroopers near the Ukraine border, according to a local report.
The incident occurred during an exercise at the Kuzminsky military training range in Russia’s Rostov region, the Russian Telegram channel Kremlin Snuffbox reported on Sunday. It said that a ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun operator mistook the drills for a Ukrainian invasion and opened fire. The range lies about 30 miles from the border with Ukraine.
Two Russian servicemen were killed as a result, according to the channel, which said that “fortunately, most of the shots missed.”
Newsweek could not independently verify the reports, and has contacted Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment by email on Monday.
An investigation has been launched into the matter. Kremlin Snuffbox said that, prior to the incident, the ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun operator had been on duty “for at least 14 hours” and had recently returned from Ukraine, where he was participating in Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.
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“The situation is aggravated by the fact that the shooter recently returned from the [war] zone, where he was awarded for effective work. The dead did not have time to take part in the hostilities,” the channel said.
In another apparent mishap this month, a Russian aircraft accidentally dropped a missile on a village in Russia’s western Voronezh region, destroying multiple homes, officials said.
In a rare admission, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on January 2 that one of its own warplanes dropped explosives on the village of Petropavlovka, damaging at least six privately owned buildings. Videos circulating on social media showed a huge crater in the ground, caused by the explosion, and scattered debris.
“At around 9:00 a.m. on January 2, while an air force plane was flying over the village of Petropavlovka in the Voronezh region, there was an emergency release of aviation munitions,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
“An investigation is underway into the circumstances of the incident. A commission is working on-site to assess the nature of the damage and assist in the restoration of buildings,” the defense ministry added.
And the Telegram channel Crimean Wind reported on January 2 that Russian air defenses struck one of Moscow’s most-advanced fighter jets, the Russian Su-35 jet, near Krasnoperekopsk, a town in the northern part of annexed Crimea.
“Now the plane is losing altitude over the Sea of Azov,” the channel said in one post, before adding in another that a “damaged Su-35 landed at a military airfield” in the city of Melitopol in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region.
More than a fifth of Russia’s known manned aircraft and helicopter losses since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the war in Ukraine in February 2022 have been self-inflicted, according to data compiled and analyzed by Newsweek in late August 2023.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.