HISTORY

A series of photos shows the destruction caused by a Russian missile in Uman on April 28. 23 people were killed in the destroyed apartment building.

that four drones attacked the dumps and two of

them were destroyed. Two however penetrated

and destroyed four tanks. The images of the

burning dumps show however that 10 to 12

tanks had been hit, which is approximately half

of the dumps capacity. After several day the

unconfirmed reports were released that in fact

as many as 30 drones had been used in the attack

in three waves. In that manner they managed to

deluge the Russian AA defense and part of them

penetrated to the target. The drones were readily

available, commercial, Chinese-made Mugin-5

modified by Ukraine to carry the explosives.

Another piece of information worth pointing out is

that there were no casualties during this attack

on the Russian military target. That’s in the sharp

contrast with the official Russian statements

which continue to stress out that only Ukrainian

military targets are attacked. Somehow, they

manage to hit the apartment buildings, markets

and kill civilian population on the regular basis.

Bombs fall on a friendly town

The attacks against civilian targets took place

on their own territory. On Thursday April 20 at

10:15 pm the explosion took place in the Russian

city of Belgorod, approximately 30 km from the

Ukrainian border. The security camera recorded

the incident. It occurred near the busy crossroad

of Vatutin and Gubkin streets. First, the impact

raising cloud of dust was recorded. After

approximately 18 seconds the explosion took

place damaging the buildings in the vicinity and

destroying several parked cars – one of them

was thrown in the air to the height of several

stories and landed on the roof of a market

located nearby. Next day the Russian authorities

confirmed three people injured with the great

luck no one was killed. The Russian Department

of Defense confirmed that Su-34 were flying

over the city and the “abnormal deployment

of the ordnance” occured. The most probable

explanation is that the Russian bomber intended

to launch the gliding bombs on the Ukrainian

targets but for some reason the wings on them

did not deploy and they hit Belgorod in the free

fall. The aircraft attacking Ukraine had been flying

over the city on the regular basis. The explosion

created the crater 20 m wide. During the damage

and debris removal another unexploded bomb

was found. Until its disarming 3.000 citizens from

17 apartment buildings had to be evacuated.

excluded that some of those will be documented

much later, as it happened previously. It is

however a first month since the outbreak of the

war that not a single loss of a Ukrainian military

aircraft was visually confirmed. Only one bizarre

incident occurred involving a Ukrainian civilian

aircraft. On Wednesday April 5, near Butovsk

in Briansk area, an ultra-light Aeroprakt A-22

Foxbat airplane made an emergency landing.

This type has been in production since 1990s

and marketed in the USA as “Valor”. The airplane

had to land after one of its propeller blades

broke off. The pilot was captured byt the Russian

border patrol. An older man supposedly stated

that he was a Ukrainian civilian with a task to

photograph the important objects. The Russians

also published the pictures of the guns and

ammunition supposedly in his possession. This

describes the event release by Russians only,

the real events remain unknown. To dispatch

a civilian aircraft to photograph military objects

at the time of available drones doesn’t make

sense.

A civilian captured in Russia

During the reporting period no confirmed kill of

the manned aircraft or Ukrainian AF helicopter

was recorded. The Russians of course claimed

several kills without confirmation, and it cannot be

Russian losses

During the reporting period several confirmed

Russian losses were reported. On Friday April

7 a video was published showing a Russian Su25 fighter-bomber shot down. It was hit by a

A Ukrainian civilian ultralight

aircraft made an emergency

landing in Russia’s Briansk

Oblast on 5/4. The Russians

immediately released photos

of its captured pilot and his

weapons.

One unexploded bomb was also found after the actual bombing

of the Russian city of Belgorod on April 20.

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INFO Eduard

June 2023