The attack sparked a major fire and triggered secondary detonations at the site
© Social media footage
The Ukrainian military has shelled an ammo depot in Russia’s southern Belgorod Region, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said late on Tuesday. The attack has sparked a major fire at the depot, prompting secondary detonations of munitions, he added.
The shelling prompted an evacuation of a nearby village, Gladkov said, adding that emergency services and local officials have been dispatched to the scene. According to preliminary information, the attack caused no deaths or injuries.
Footage circulating online shows a major fire, with explosions heard in the background. The fire sent a large cloud of smoke into the skies above the now-destroyed depot.
Earlier in the day, a residential building was damaged during the Ukrainian shelling of Belgorod City itself. An identified object, believed to be debris of a Ukrainian projectile or drone, intercepted by Russian air defenses, crashed into the building, damaging its roof and upper floor.
Belgorod is among Russia’s border regions that have repeatedly come under Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks amid the ongoing conflict. Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics, which have since joined the Russian Federation, as independent states, and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked
