MOSCOW: Russia said it had accidentally bombed a village in its southern Voronezh region near Ukraine on Tuesday but stressed there were no casualties.

The accident occurred the same day as Russia hit Ukraine with a large-scale missile attack. It is not the first such incident during Moscow’s almost two-year-long Ukraine offensive.

In April last year, the Russian army acknowledged that one of its warplanes accidentally drop­ped a bomb in its own city of Belgorod, near the Uk­raine border, causing a blast.

“On January 2, 2024, at around 9am Moscow time, during a flight of the Aerospace Forces, an abnormal discharge of aircraft ammunition occurred over the village of Petropavlovka in the Voronezh region,” the Russian army said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.

“There are no casualties,” it added. Petropavlovka lies some 150 kilometres east of the Ukraine border.

The ministry said six private houses were damaged in the accident, Russian news agencies reported.

“An investigation into the circumstances of the incident is underway. A commission is working on the ground to assess the nature of the damage and provide assistance to restoring houses,” the statement read.

The governor of the Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, said some of Petropavlovka’s residents have been moved to temporary accommodation. He also said there were no casualties but said there was “destruction recorded in seven households.”

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2024