Ukraine has destroyed a major arms depot in Russia, which occurred around 12 miles from the Russian-Ukrainian border.
Video has emerged of the firework-like explosions at the site of an arms depot just outside the Russian city of Belgorod. It is believed to have been destroyed by a Ukrainian missile.
Yuriv Butusov, a Ukrainian journalist, claimed that the depot was hit by OTR-21 Tochka-U ballistic missiles fired by the Ukrainian 19th missile brigade.
The strike hasn’t yet been confirmed by Ukrainian officials but this would be the second Ukrainian attack on Russian territory since the invasion began.
The Governor of Belgorod Vyacheslav Gladkov said that no Russian citizens were hurt.
“Explosions were heard on the territory of Belgorod and the Belgorod region,” Gladkov said.
“The incident took place near the village of Krasniy Oktyabr. The head of the village is in direct contact with me and has given me all the information. There are no casualties or injuries among the residents.’
“I’ll post the reason for this later.”
But according to Russian news agency TASS, four Russian military personnel were injured. Preliminary reports also suggested that the blast was caused by a Ukrainian missile.
An emergency services source told TASS: “The shell hit the territory of a temporary military camp in the Belgorod region. Four servicemen were injured.”
The missile strike comes the same day that Russia announced it would start pulling back soldiers from Chernihiv and Kyiv after peace talks with Ukrainian delegates in Istanbul.
During their negotiations, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said Moscow will “fundamentally… cut back military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv” to “increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations.”
Meanwhile, his superior Sergey Shoigu said that Russian forces will concentrate on the ‘liberation’ of eastern Donbass region instead of attacking major cities in Ukraine.
However, Western officials have remained suspicious of Kremlin’s true intensions, with one official saying: “Nothing that we have seen so far has demonstrated to us that President Putin and his colleagues are particularly serious about [scaling back]. It is more of a tactical exercise playing for time.
“Even if they do what they say they are going to do that is not in any shape or form a cessation of hostilities… I think we can continue to see continued death and destruction (in the Donbass).”
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