Two civilians injured as explosion rocks Russia’s Belgorod – governor

An “unknown device” exploded in Russia’s southwestern city of Belgorod on Thursday, injuring two civilians and damaging a road vehicle, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said.

According to preliminary evaluation, the incident was caused by an UAV crashing into the middle of a road, the governor said in a Telegram post, sharing footage from the scene.

The imagery shows multiple emergency vehicles on site, as well as an apparent winglet of the crashed drone.

The incident left at least two civilians lightly injured, and one of them has been hospitalized with a possible concussion. The explosion also damaged a car, Gladkov wrote.

The drone seemed to explode in mid-air, with the blast occurring in the vicinity of a local gas station, Belgorod mayor Valentin Demidov has said, adding that no explosive materials have been found on the site of the blast. It was not immediately clear whether the UAV exploded on its own or was shot down.

Belgorod, as well as other Russian regions bordering Ukraine, have come under repeated artillery and rocket shelling, as well as drone attacks throughout the conflict. Earlier in the day, Gladkov said that several locations across the border had been subjected to heavy artillery shelling over the past day, with multiple residential homes and other properties damaged and more than a dozen of civilians injured.