'Those were our planes' — Belgorod resident says Russian warplane bombed civilian area, alleged intercept shows
A resident of Russia's Belgorod Oblast expressed outrage after a Russian warplane purportedly dropped a bomb on civilian property, according to an alleged intercepted phone call released by Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) on Aug. 10.
"It's terrible. At five o'clock, there was a huge explosion," a woman is heard saying in the recording.
"And those were our planes. They were spotted on radar, and to avoid getting hit, they dropped it (a bomb) on a vegetable garden. Why are they flying over populated areas?"
The woman does not mention any injuries as a result of the incident.
The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the authenticity of the audio.
Incidents of Russian munitions falling on Russian territory have occurred repeatedly during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Washington Post reported last year that Russian aircraft dropped glide bombs on domestic targets nearly 40 times between April 2023 and April 2024.
One of the most notable incidents occurred in April 2023, when a Russian bomb misfired and created a massive crater in downtown Belgorod.
Other incidents include the Jan. 26 discovery of a UMPB-250 "smart bomb" in a Belgorod Oblast village, and a Jan. 3, 2024, blast in Petropavlovka, Voronezh Oblast, that injured four people after what officials described as the "emergency release of munitions."
Belgorod Oblast, which borders Ukraine's Kharkiv, Sumy, and Luhansk oblasts, has served as a staging ground for Moscow's attacks. The city of Belgorod, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) from the border, is among the Russian cities most directly affected by hostilities during Moscow's war against Ukraine.
