Helicopter attack on Klimovo?: Russia accuses Ukraine of shelling Russian cities

Helicopter attack on Klimovo?
Russia accuses Ukraine of bombing Russian cities

4/14/2022, 6:27 PM

Ukrainian helicopters are said to have struck targets again on Russian soil. At least that is the claim of the governor of the Bryansk region. Many people are said to be injured. This attack is reminiscent of an earlier incident. However, Ukraine has denied this.

Russia has accused Ukraine of attacking two cities near the border, one of them by helicopter. The Russian investigative committee said two military helicopters carried out at least six airstrikes on residential buildings in the Klimovo settlement in the Bryansk region. Seven people were injured. There were reports of rockets being fired on social media. The allegations could not be independently confirmed. Videos on Twitter show only burning buildings and clouds of smoke. There is no evidence of a helicopter attack by Ukraine.

The governor of Bryansk had previously reported an attack on a village. “Today the Ukrainian army opened fire on the village of Klimovo,” Alexander Bogomas told Telegram. “As a result of the shelling, two houses were damaged and some residents were injured.” Rescuers are on the spot and will provide “medical care” to the residents. Klimovo is about ten kilometers from the Ukrainian border and has about 13,000 inhabitants.

The governor of the Belgorod border region also accused the Ukrainian armed forces of bombing the village of Spodarushino. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel that there were no casualties or damage to property, but authorities had evacuated Spodariusino and another location.

Lots of question marks after fuel depot attack

Early on 1 April, Russia claimed that Ukrainian helicopters had entered Russian territory and opened fire on a fuel depot near the city of Belgorod. No one was injured or killed in the attack at that time. Ukraine denied flying the attack. Some military experts also considered this unlikely as the city of Belgorod is about 40 km from the border. Accordingly, the two helicopters would have covered a total distance of 80 kilometers over Russian territory – in Belgorod itself they flew extremely low, which can be seen on the video – without being shot down or damaged. This would speak to an extremely poor defense by the Russian military.

Experts said that the attack on fuel depots on Russian territory would not cause any serious damage. An attack on a military convoy or a military installation would have made a lot of sense militarily. In addition, Russia has claimed for several weeks that it has all airspace over Ukraine under its control. A successful attack by Ukraine would contradict this view.

Also on Thursday, the Ukrainian side shot down a border post where more than 30 Ukrainian refugees were trying to enter Russia, the Tass news agency reported, citing the Russian Secret Service (FSB).