Last night, a Russian missile fired from the border city of Belgorod misfired and landed on its own soil.
According to reports, the assault missed Kharkiv but landed close to homes in the city where the Kremlin keeps weapons for operations on Ukraine.
The Iskander missile can be seen racing through the sky in footage that has been circulated online before it begins its quick plummet to earth and explodes in a flame.
Russians were observed leaving Belgorod in a panic earlier this week after Ukraine fired a barrage of missiles overnight.
The most recent Kremlin gaffe demonstrates that the locals could have been running from their own rockets.
On Monday night, footage from the city’s train station captured images of commuters squeezing into the midnight train.
The panic started as footage of Ukrainian missiles flying above the city before they were stopped by defence systems were published on Telegram.
The rockets lit up the night sky over residential structures as they detonated in brilliant white lights.
Due to its closeness to the border and the storage of Russian weapons, Belgorod has been seen as a target for Ukrainian assaults, and the Kremlin often launches attacks from the area.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said that the country successfully resisted Russian advances today in the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, which are located north of the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk.
The panic started as footage of Ukrainian missiles flying over the city before being shot down by defence systems were published on Telegram.
The general staff noted on Wednesday that pro-Russian forces had concentrated on Bakhmut in their effort to expand their grip over the Donbas area, which is the country’s industrial centre in the east.
In response to reports of Ukrainian advancement, Russia claimed that its soldiers had routed Ukrainian forces.
Separatists said today that in the Russian-controlled portion of the Donetsk area in eastern Ukraine, 13 emergency service employees were killed and nine were injured after coming under artillery fire from the Ukrainian army.
According to representatives of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), “On September 1, at about 4 am, a group of emergency services employees from the DPR carrying out their duties in the hamlet of Rubtsi… came under artillery fire from Ukrainian army forces.”
The story could not be independently verified by Reuters.
As a team of UN inspectors were on their way to see Europe’s biggest nuclear power facility despite the fighting, Russia and Ukraine accused one another of launching assaults today nearby.
The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a team of inspectors to the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station despite the severe bombardment that caused an emergency mechanism to shut down one of its reactors. The team was headed by Rafael Grossi, the agency’s director.
After being informed by the Ukrainian military, Grossi said, he chose to go on despite the obvious hazards. “There has been heightened military activity, especially this morning till quite late.”
We are not stopping, despite assessing the advantages and disadvantages and having gone thus far.
In the’so-called grey zone’ between Ukrainian and Russian lines, the dangers are’very, very high,’ he said, but ‘we think that we have the minimal prerequisites to move.’
Since the beginning of the six-month-old conflict, Russian soldiers have been occupying Zaporizhzhia, the biggest nuclear power facility in Europe, which is nevertheless managed by Ukrainian engineers.
Moscow accuses Ukraine of shooting carelessly on the region, increasing the risk of a nuclear accident that might impact the whole continent. Ukraine claims Russia is using the facility as a shield, storing weapons there and launching strikes from surrounding it.
Early in March, fighting resulted in a minor fire within its training facility, and in recent days, damage prompted the plant to be temporarily shut down, raising concerns of a radiation leak or a nuclear meltdown. Residents in the area are now receiving anti-radiation iodine pills from officials.
According to Grossi, “we are going to start immediately an evaluation of the security and the safety situation at the facility” since “we have a very important task to perform.”
“I am going to look into the possibilities of keeping the IAEA at the facility,” he added. “We feel that this is essential to stabilise the situation and to have frequent, trustworthy, unbiased reports on what the situation is there.”
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian soldiers launched an artillery bombardment before sending up to 60 scouts to attempt to take over the nuclear facility.
According to the report, the Ukrainian soldiers attempted to take the facility after arriving on boats and landing three kilometres northeast of it on the Dnieper River’s left bank. According to the ministry, Russian soldiers “took efforts to annihilate the adversary” by shooting down jets.
The ministry issued a statement saying, “The provocation by the Kyiv government is designed to disrupt the arrival of the IAEA’s crew to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.”
The early Thursday morning Ukrainian bombardment claimed at least three local lives and wounded one, according to the Enerhodar administration, which was erected by Russia close outside the facility.
In a false flag strike meant to thwart the arrival of the IAEA team, Russian forces are suspected by Ukrainian authorities of bombarding Enerhodar and the area around the nuclear power station.
Oleksandr Starukh, the governor of Zaporizhzhia, stated, “We are requesting that Russia halt provocations and grant the IAEA unrestricted access to the Ukrainian nuclear site.”
Neither side’s account of what happened could be independently confirmed right away.
In addition, a backup power supply line for internal usage was destroyed by the shelling, and a reactor inside the facility that wasn’t in operation was transferred to running on diesel generators.