NewsBelgorod Blast: Allegations fly as building collapse kills two

Belgorod Blast: Allegations fly as building collapse kills two

Partially collapsed building in the Russian city of Biełgorod

Images source: © ТАСС

12 May 2024 16:09

In the Russian city of Belgorod, a portion of a 10-story building collapsed following an explosion, resulting in 2 deaths and 20 injuries. The governor of the Belgorod region accused Ukraine of the attack, but experts from the Ukrainian service Defense Express suggest that the Russian side could be behind the incident.

Russian channels on Telegram cite emergency services and report on the disaster. Based on photos shared on social media, one tower staircase appears to have been completely destroyed, while the others seem untouched.

Russians are inconsistent in their version of events. The governor of the Belgorod region suggests that the cause of the floors collapsing was a direct missile hit. However, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the building was not hit by a missile but by fragments from a missile downed by Ukrainian air defence forces Toczka-U.

Ukrainian experts challenge the Russian version

Experts from the Defense Express service have investigated the matter. They indicate that most Russian materials show damage to the building from the southwest side, but significantly more damage occurred from the northeast side.

The damage appearing on the other side may suggest that the missile which destroyed the building came from the Russian Federation.

Experts from Defense Express suggest that the building could have been destroyed by a missile fired from Russia.© Defense Express

The Toczka-U system is also used by Russia

It's worth mentioning that the Toczka-U system is in the arsenal of both the Ukrainian and Russian sides. The weapon has been used repeatedly during the ongoing war in Ukraine.

What we have here is a profound modernization of the Toczka system – a Soviet tactical missile system of the earth-to-earth class with short-range ballistic missiles. The TEL class launcher was placed on a wheeled chassis.

Toczka-U - overview photo© Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, Wikimedia Commons | ©VoidWanderer

Thanks to the modernization of the design, the firing range has been increased by up to 70% (to approximately 120 kilometres), and the accuracy of missile projectiles has risen by about 60%. The system can use fragmentation, cluster, and even nuclear warheads.