Moscow/Kiev, (EFE)
The projectile, which left three injured and caused social alarm among the local population, caused a crater 20 meters in diameter in the center of the regional capital.
The explosion of the projectile, whose type has not been specified by the Russian Ministry of Defense, also affected several residential buildings, cars and power line poles.
Defense added that an investigation has been launched to clarify the causes of the incident, which recalls the accident suffered in October by an Su-34 fighter that caused 16 deaths when it crashed into a building in the south of the country.
The bomb alerts kyiv
According to Ukrainian military experts, an aerial bomb fell in Belgorod, the kind that Russia frequently launches against Ukrainian border territories.
These projectiles can be launched at a distance of up to 70 kilometers and are capable of evading kyiv’s anti-aircraft defenses.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, in recent weeks the Russians have dropped about 20 such bombs across the entire front line and more modern weapons are required to intercept them, reports the NV.ua portal.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Air Force, Yuriy Ignat, warned that bombs like the one in Belgorod “could also fall in other places”, because the Russians “do everything quickly” and neglect quality.
According to Ignat, the projectile that fell in Belgorod is “an old Soviet bomb”, but suitable for modernization.
The spokesman reiterated that this is why the Ukrainian forces expect to receive more long-range air defense systems, such as Patriot and others such as SAMT/T.
The allies, in Ramstein
Simultaneously, Ukraine’s allies met again today at the Ramstein airbase (Germany) to coordinate their military aid to kyiv, which is demanding more arms and ammunition for its next counteroffensive.
The US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, assured that international support for Ukraine remains “firm and true” and announced the early arrival in Germany of the “Abrams” main battle tanks promised to Ukraine so that its soldiers can learn to drive them.
The Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, recently arrived from Kiev, confirmed for his part that the Ukrainian President, Volodímir Zelenski, accepted the invitation to attend the next NATO summit in Vilnius next July.
Earlier, Zelensky had expressed his confidence that the meeting in Vilnius would be decisive both for kyiv and for all of NATO.
The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced today “the growing appetites” of the Ukrainian president who “does not stop demanding new and modern weapons from the West” to attack targets also in the Russian rear.
“Today at a new meeting of the contact group for Ukraine in Ramstein kyiv intends to request urgent shipments of anti-missile defense systems and long-range projectiles,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The Kremlin accuses NATO of dragging Ukraine
Beyond the arms issue, Stoltenberg assured today that “the future of Ukraine is in the Euro-Atlantic family” and that all NATO partners have agreed that Ukraine becomes a member of the Alliance.
At the same time, the main objective now, he added, is “to ensure that Ukraine prevails” and that Russian President Vladimir Putin “does not win the war”, because “without a sovereign and independent Ukraine there is no point in discussing an accession”.
The Kremlin was quick to react to these statements and accused NATO of wanting to “drag” Ukraine into the Euro-Atlantic bloc, thus threatening Russia’s security.
“NATO continues to show its aggressive essence, which we talked about even before the start of the special military operation. It obviously continues with its line of absorbing and dragging Ukraine into the Alliance,” said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov.
This Thursday, the Kremlin had already recognized that one of its objectives in Ukraine is precisely to prevent the country from entering the Atlantic Alliance.