Russia accidentally bombs own village near Ukraine

A man uses his smartphone to take pictures of a bomb crater on the side of a road outside the settlement of Anna in the Voronezh region on June 27, 2023. AFP FILE PHOTO

MOSCOW — Russia said it had accidentally bombed a village in its southern Voronezh region near Ukraine on Tuesday but stressed there were no casualties.

The accident occurred the same day as Russia hit Ukraine with a large-scale missile attack. 

It is not the first such incident during Moscow’s almost two-year-long Ukraine offensive.

“On January 2, 2024, at around 9am Moscow time (GMT), during a flight of the Aerospace Forces, an abnormal discharge of aircraft ammunition occurred over the village of Petropavlovka in the Voronezh region,” the Russian army said in a statement  quoted by Russian new agencies.

“There are no casualties,” it added.

Petropavlovka lies some 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of the Ukraine border.

The ministry said six private houses were damaged in the accident, Russian news agencies reported.

“An investigation into the circumstances of the incident is underway. A commission is working on the ground to assess the nature of the damage and provide assistance to restoring houses,” the statement read.

The governor of the Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, said some of Petropavlovka’s residents have been moved to temporary accommodation.

He also said there were no casualties but said there was “destruction recorded in seven households.”

In April last year, the Russian army acknowledged that one of its warplanes accidentally dropped a bomb in its own city of Belgorod, near the Ukraine border, causing a blast.