Putin’s fighter plane accidentally fires on Russian city instead of Ukraine

At least two people were injured after a Russian warplane accidentally fired a weapon into their own city of Belgorod, near Ukraine, last night, causing an explosion and damaging buildings, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“While a Sukhoi Su-34 air force plane was flying over the city of Belgorod, there was an accidental discharge of aviation ammunition,” the Defense Ministry said, the Tass news agency reported. It is not immediately clear what type of weapon was fired from the supersonic fighter jet.

Local authorities reported a large explosion in Belgorod, across the border from Ukraine.

Two women were injured in the blast and some buildings were damaged, the regional governor said.

Authorities launched an investigation into the accidental shooting.

Video footage from the site showed piles of concrete in the street, several damaged cars and a building with broken windows. One shot showed what appeared to be a car upside down on the roof of a store.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommendation to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to international competition as neutrals is “confusing” because Ukraine is still under attack, world number one tennis player Iga Swiatek said.

The IOC sanctioned both Russia and Belarus after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February last year.

However, now he wants athletes to return in all sports and have a chance to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Russian forces attacked Bilopillia, a town in northeastern Ukraine, three times overnight, according to Ukrainian state broadcaster Suspilne.

But, citing local authorities, he reported that there were no victims.

Severe mud is likely to delay operations for both sides of the conflict due to soft ground conditions across most of Ukraine, Britain’s Defense Ministry said today.

“However, Russian online media are likely to exaggerate the overall impact of the mud on Ukrainian forces as part of an information operation aimed at boosting Russian morale and undermining Ukrainian supporters, in light of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. anticipated,” the ministry said in its latest report. intelligence update.

He added that surface conditions can be expected to improve in the coming weeks, but the threat of mines probably remains a bigger factor limiting off-road maneuvering by fighters.

A mysterious flash of bright light lit up the night skies over kyiv on Wednesday, April 19, sparking theories as to what it could be.

The glow was observed in the capital around 22:00 local time (19:00 GMT).

Kiev city officials initially said it was a crashed NASA satellite, citing “preliminary information”, but the space agency said the satellite was still in orbit.

Ukraine’s air force, which is trying to shoot down missiles and drones from Russia, suggested the light could come from a meteorite.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky told NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg that it is time to let his country into the alliance, during Stoltenberg’s first visit to Kiev since Russia’s invasion began.

Stoltenberg said that “his rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family… he is in NATO,” and invited Zelensky to a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July. The Ukrainian president said he believed the summit could be “historic” but his nation needs a roadmap for membership.

“There is no objective barrier to the political decision to invite Ukraine to the alliance and now, when the majority of people in NATO countries and the majority of Ukrainians support NATO membership, it is time to take the corresponding decisions. Zelensky said.

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The governor of Russia’s giant Krasnoyarsk territory has resigned, authorities said Thursday, shortly after his businessman son eluded Italian authorities trying to extradite him to the United States and fled to Russia.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree accepting the resignation of Alexander Uss, but gave no details.

His son, Artem Uss, was due to face charges in the US for shipping oil from Venezuela in violation of sanctions and for bank fraud. An Italian court allowed him to leave under house arrest last month, but he quickly fled.

In a video posted on April 9, after Artem Uss returned to Russia, Alexander Uss thanked those who helped him return. He also said that he was grateful to Putin, describing him as “a man with a big and open heart.”

Uss wrote on Telegram on Thursday that he had recently spoken with Putin and received an offer to continue working at the federal level, dealing with socio-economic development.

Italy’s justice minister has launched disciplinary action against three judges who granted Uss house arrest, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Artem Uss told Russia’s RIA news agency that the US charges against him were politically motivated.

The Krasnoyarsk Territory covers just under 2.4 million square kilometers (930,000 sq mi) in Siberia.

A video from the battlefield in Bakhmut has shown the deadly fighting between the Ukrainian and Russian forces with various close-in situations.

The Ukrainian ground force battalion DaVinci Wolves shared an 11-minute video showing a gun fight in which Russian forces fire on trenches used by also responding Ukrainian troops.

At one point, Russian forces are also seen throwing a grenade into the trench, but it fails to explode in a near-death situation.

A Ukrainian soldier is also heard shouting that he has killed a Russian soldier, saying “we killed them”, but another responds that the enemy is alive and on the move.

the independent has not verified the authenticity of the video.

Badminton confirmed its ban on Russian and Belarusian players from international competition on Thursday, days before Olympic qualification begins.

The badminton qualification period for next year’s Paris Olympics begins on May 1 and uses a calendar year classification.

Meanwhile, modern pentathlon said it would set a “path” for athletes from the two countries to return, but did not commit to a date.