A Russian bomb “abnormally landed” in a school in the village of Bykovka in the Yakovlevsky urban district, marking the 150th time Russia has accidentally bombed itself this year with an FAB aerial bomb, according to the independent Russian-language publication Astra.
The 550-pound Russian UMBP aerial bomb was reportedly dropped by a Russian plane and pierced the roof of the school in the morning yesterday when it fell. It did not cause any evacuations to take place or casualties to occur. Newsweek reached out to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for comment via email.
Russia has accidentally bombed Russian territories and parts of eastern Ukraine they have seized on numerous occasions since the war began in February 2022, including when a Russian warplane accidentally bombed Belgorod, resulting in a huge crater and a large explosion in the city in April 2023.
Astra has found that Russia most commonly accidentally bombs itself with FAB-250 and FAB-500 aerial bombs, which are most often used by Russian forces for attacks on the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, and in the city of Kharkiv.
Uncredited, Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/Associated Press
Local residents also said that Russia accidentally bombed itself the day before, and another FAB-250 aerial bomb fell on November 15 near the village of Bely Kolodez in the Shebekinsky urban district. There were no casualties or destruction in the bombing on November 15.
When bombs land “abnormally,” they reportedly do not detonate, and the shelling is destroyed by demolition experts after the fact.
Internal Russian documents obtained by The Washington Post this summer said that the reason why Russia continually accidentally bombs itself is because of faulty guidance systems.
The documents, compiling 38 incidents that took place in the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine between April 2023 and April 2024, noted that the Soviet-era glide bombs are often retrofitted with defective guidance systems, but more often than not, do not explode when deployed.
Ruslan Leviev, a military expert with the Conflict Intelligence Team, told The Washington Post: “A certain percentage of Russian bombs is defective. This problem has existed since they started using these UMPK kits and it’s not being fundamentally solved. We think these accidental releases are caused by the unreliability of these kits, something that does not seem to bother the Air Force.”
Leviev said: “According to our estimates, only a fraction of these bombs fail, so it doesn’t affect the practical effectiveness of this weapon, no matter how cynical that may sound.”
Other notable instances this year in which Russia accidentally bombed itself include accidentally bombing the town of Shebekino in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border four times as of last May.
In past instances, Russian authorities have reportedly acknowledged some of the incidents and said that there was an “an abnormal discharge of ammunition,” but have also tried to cover up the incidents.
