(CNN) A Russian fighter jet dropped a bomb on a Russian city of more than 400,000 people late Thursday, leaving a crater 40 meters (130 feet) in diameter, blasting a car onto a roof and damaging buildings, according to state media designated as “emergency rescue” by an air force.”
A Russian Su-34 plane, a twin-engine fighter-bomber, fired the munitions over the city of Belgorod, 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) north of the border with Ukraine, state news agencies RIA Novosti and TASS report.
“On April 20 at about 10:15 p.m. Moscow time, when a Su-34 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces was conducting a flight over the city of Belgorod, an emergency deployment of an air force occurred,” TASS quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying.
“It happened at the intersection of one of the central roads and left a huge impact crater with a radius of 20 meters,” Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said in a Telegram contribution.
According to RIA Novosti, an overturned car landed on the roof of a store.
Belgorod Mayor Valentin Demidov wrote on his Telegram channel that several apartment buildings were damaged in the explosion.
Two people were injured in the explosion, Gladkov said.
Russian state media boasted about the country’s Su-34 fighter jets last December when they said a “new batch of … front-line bombers” had been delivered to the Russian armed forces for use against Ukraine. An exact number of aircraft delivered was not given.
“The Su-34 bomber will represent the basic striking force of Russian front-line aircraft. The upgraded Su-34 fighter jet has expanded combat capabilities that allow it to use advanced airborne munitions, increase the range of ground and sea targets, and expand the conditions and accuracy of bombing raids,” a TASS report said at the time .
The aircraft can carry a variety of munitions, including air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, as well as guided and unguided bombs.
Russian state media did not say late Thursday what kind of ammunition fell on Belgorod.
Moscow’s Su-34 fleet has suffered significant casualties since the war began, with estimates of 10% or more destroyed. The Netherlands-based open-source intelligence website Oryx claims to have visual evidence of 19 of the aircraft that were lost both in combat and out of combat.
The Belgorod region has been the scene of multiple explosions and bombings since Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.
Earlier this week, a village in the region bordering Ukraine was attacked by Kyiv’s forces, Gladkov claimed in a Telegram post.
Local media, citing an anonymous source, reported that two drones dropped small bombs on local thermal power plants.
Ukraine would not confirm its involvement in this incident.
“We will neither confirm nor deny [Ukraine’s involvement]” said a representative of Ukraine’s defense intelligence service Andrii Yusov in comments aired on Ukrainian state television on Monday.
“I think the Russians should get used to the fact that there are no safe places on their territory while waging an unjust war of aggression.”
“The war has already come to the homeland of every Russo-fascist and every subject of the Russian regime,” he added.