Russia has been self-inflicting considerable blows as its troops have targeted their own country on 39 occasions since the start of the year, a new report found.
The independent Russian outlet The Insider found that Russian munitions had hit the border region of Belgorod nearly 40 times as Moscow continues to push forward with its efforts to gain more ground in Ukraine.
The region, which borders Kharkiv Oblast in Ukraine, has come under direct friendly fire on multiple occasions, with the latest instance reported last week as Russia launched a two-pronged offensive to move closer to the city of Kharkiv.
Ukraine‘s second-biggest city has been the target of continuous strikes for months but some of Russia‘s munitions have accidentally struck Russian land instead of reaching their objective.
One of the incidents involved a Kh-59 missile, with The Insider reporting the other unintended strikes involved variations of Moscow’s FAB air-launched bombs.
In addition to the friendly fire, Belgorod has also been repeatedly subjected to drone attacks and air raids conducted by Ukraine.
Russian officials blamed Kyiv for the partial collapse of an apartment building that caused at least 13 deaths and injured 20 other people on Sunday.
The Russian Defense Ministry later wrote on social media that fragments of a downed Tochka-U TRC missile had damaged the building.
It also said that air defences had shot down several more rockets over the Belgorod region, as well as two drones that were destroyed in a separate incident later Sunday.