Russian missile launched from its own border city MISFIRES and slams into the ground near residential buildings in latest Kremlin blunder
- Russia fired an Iskander missile in the direction of Kharkiv from Belgorod
- It misfired and fell to the ground near residential buildings in the border city
- Earlier this week, Russians were seen fleeing from Belgorod on a midnight train
A Russian missile launched from the border city of Belgorod last night misfired and instead fell down on its own territory.
The strike was allegedly due to hit Kharkiv but fell down near residential buildings in the city where Kremlin weaponry is stored for attacks on Ukraine.
Footage shared online shows the Iskander missile tearing through the sky before it starts its rapid descent down to earth and explodes in a fireball.
A Russian missile launched from the border city of Belgorod last night misfired and instead fell down on its own territory
The strike was allegedly due to hit Kharkiv but fell down near residential buildings in the city where Kremlin weaponry is stored for attacks on Ukraine
Earlier this week, panicked Russians were seen desperately fleeing Belgorod after Ukraine unleashed a string of overnight missiles.
The latest Kremlin blunder shows the residents could well have been escaping their own missiles.
Footage taken from the city’s railway station on Monday night shows civilians trying to cram on to the midnight train.
The mad rush came after videos were shared on Telegram of Ukrainian missiles flying over the city before they were interrupted by defence systems.
Footage shared online shows the Iskander missile tearing through the sky before it starts its rapid descent down to earth and explodes in a fireball
The rockets exploded in bright white lights, illuminating the night sky above residential buildings.
Belgorod has been considered vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks due to its proximity to the border and its storage of Russian weaponry, with the Kremlin regularly launching strikes from the region.
Elsewhere today, Ukraine repelled Russian attacks in the direction of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, towns north of the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, its armed forces’ general staff said.
Panicked Russians were seen desperately fleeing the border city of Belgorod on Monday after Ukraine unleashed a string of overnight missiles
The mad rush came after videos were shared on Telegram of Ukrainian missiles flying overhead in the city before they were interrupted by defence systems.
Pro-Russian troops have focused on Bakhmut in their push to extend control over the Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland in its east, the general staff added on Wednesday.
Russia has denied reports of Ukrainian progress and said its troops had routed Ukrainian forces.
Separatists said today that 13 emergency service personnel were killed and nine wounded after coming under Ukrainian artillery fire in the Russian-controlled part of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
‘On Sept. 1, at around 4 am, a group of emergency services personnel from the DPR carrying out their tasks in the village of Rubtsi … came under artillery fire from Ukrainian armed formations,’ officials from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Telegram.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.
A man leaves his damaged apartment building following a missile strike in Kramatorsk yesterday
An interior view of a damaged building after shelling in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine
It comes as Russia and Ukraine accused each other of waging attacks today near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant just as a team of UN inspectors were heading to visit it despite the fighting.
A group of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, led by its director Rafael Grossi, set off for the Russia-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant despite the heavy shelling that led to an emergency system shutting down one of its reactors.
‘There has been increased military activity, including this morning until very recently,’ Grossi said, adding that after being briefed by the Ukrainian military he decided to get moving despite the inherent risks.
‘But weighing the pros and cons and having come so far, we are not stopping.’
He noted that the risks are ‘very, very high’ in the so-called grey zone between Ukrainian and Russian positions, but ‘we consider that we have the minimum conditions to move.’
Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, has been occupied by Russian forces but run by Ukrainian engineers since the early days of the six-month-old war.
A local resident pushes his bike as smoke rises over the site of an explosion after a rocket attack in Bakhmut, Donetsk region
Ukraine alleges Russia is using the plant as a shield, storing weapons there and launching attacks from around it, while Moscow accuses Ukraine of recklessly firing on the area, raising the threat of a nuclear disaster that may affect the entire continent.
Fighting in early March caused a brief fire at its training complex, and in recent days, the plant was temporarily knocked offline because of damage, heightening fears of a radiation leak or a reactor meltdown. Officials have begun distributing anti-radiation iodine tablets to nearby residents.
‘We have a very important mission to accomplish,’ Grossi said, adding that ‘we are going to start immediately an assessment of the security and the safety situation at the plant.’
‘I am going to consider the possibility of establishing a continued presence of the IAEA at the plant, which we believe is indispensable to stabilize the situation and to get regular, reliable, impartial, neutral updates of what the situation is there,’ he said.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that Ukrainian forces unleashed an artillery barrage of the area and then sent a group of up to 60 scouts to try to seize control of the nuclear plant.
Municipal service workers board up the windows of damaged apartment building broken by a missile strike in Kharkiv
A woman using a mobile phone takes photos of buildings damaged by shelling in a residential area in the city of Irpin
It said that the Ukrainian troops arrived in boats, landing three kilometers northeast of the plant on the left bank of the Dnieper River and tried to seize it. The ministry said that the Russian forces ‘took steps to destroy the enemy,’ engaging warplanes.
‘The provocation by the Kyiv regime is intended to derail the arrival of the IAEA’s group at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,’ the ministry said in a statement.
The Russia-installed administration of the city of Enerhodar just outside the plant said that at least three local residents were killed and one was injured early Thursday by the Ukrainian shelling.
Ukrainian authorities accused Russia of shelling Enerhodar and the territory of the nuclear power plant in a false flag attack intended to derail the arrival of the IAEA’s team.
‘We are demanding that Russia stop provocations and offer the IAEA unhindered access to the Ukrainian nuclear facility,’ said Zaporizhzhia Gov. Oleksandr Starukh.
Neither side’s version of events could immediately be independently verified.
Ukraine’s Enerhoatom company that oversees the country’s nuclear power plants said that mortar shelling by the Russian forces led to the shutdown of one of its reactors by its emergency protection system
It added that the shelling also damaged a backup power supply line used for in-house needs, and one of the plant’s reactors that wasn’t operating was switched to diesel generators.
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