Russia has dropped Kalibr missiles on its own territory twice in a single day, according to a local report.
The missiles fell in the Krasnodar area, located in the North Caucasus region in southern Russia, on January 13, the Russian ASTRA Telegram news channel reported. There have been numerous incidents reported in recent weeks that involved Russia's military accidentally dropping munitions and missiles on its own civilians.
The first Russian Kalibr missile fell in the region between the villages of Pavlovskaya and Atamanskaya in the morning, and the second came down in a field during the evening, causing no casualties or damage, ASTRA reported, citing sources in the region's emergency services, Russian military analyst Ian Matveev, and analysts from the Conflict Intelligence Team.
Newsweek couldn't independently verify the report and has contacted Russia's defense ministry for comment by email.
It marks at least the fifth time that Russia's military may have mistakenly bombed its own territory since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, the Moscow Times reported.
On January 2, a Russian missile fell on the village of Petropavlovka in the Voronezh region, injuring four people.
In a rare admission, the defense ministry said one of its own warplanes accidentally targeted the village of Petropavlovka, damaging at least six privately owned buildings. Videos circulating on social media showed a huge crater in the ground, caused by an explosion, and scattered debris.
"At around 9 a.m. on January 2, while an air force plane was flying over the village of Petropavlovka in the Voronezh region, there was an emergency release of aviation munitions," the defense ministry said in a statement.
Similar incidents occurred on April 20, May 24 and 25, 2023, the publication noted.
Elsewhere, in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, which is in Ukraine's Donbas region, but is controlled by Kremlin-installed legislatures, a Russian aircraft dropped a bomb on the town Rubezhnoye on January 8.
"As combat missions were executed by aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces over the city of Rubezhnoye, an emergency discharge of the FAB-250 aircraft munition occurred," the Moscow-backed head of the region, Leonid Pasechnik said in a post on his Telegram channel, adding that no casualties were reported.
Pasechnik said people living in nearby houses were evacuated and offered the opportunity to stay at a temporary accommodation center.
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Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
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