As reported, at dawn on April 1, 2022, at about 05:45 in the morning, two Mi-24 combat helicopters of the Army aviation of Ukraine, approaching at low altitude from Ukraine, struck 80 mm unguided missiles at the Belgorodnefteprodukt oil depot in Belgorod on Russian territory. In addition to the oil depot, these Ukrainian helicopters casually shot down a number of industrial enterprises in the Belgorod industrial zone, but without much effect. After the strike, both Ukrainian helicopters safely left for the territory of Ukraine.
Mi-24 combat helicopter of the Army Aviation of Ukraine at Belgorod 01.04.2022 (c) video frame from social networks
According to official reports of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, eight fuel tanks with a volume of 2 thousand cubic meters each burned down at the Belgorodnefteprodukt oil depot (owned by Rosneft Oil Company), the threat of a fire crossing to eight more tanks was prevented. The fire continued on the evening of April 1. The fire area was 1200 sq. m. meters. The order of the extinguishing forces reached 200 people and 50 pieces of equipment, fire helicopters were involved.
Thus, apparently, the first enemy air strike on the territory of Russia took place since October 8, 1950, when during the Korean War, US Air Force fighters (as officially believed, by mistake) struck the Soviet military airfield Sukhaya Rechka in Primorsky Krai.
The Belgorodnefteprodukt oil depot is located in a straight line 50 km from the border with Ukraine. The attack of Ukrainian helicopter gunships on Belgorod was a well-planned and well-conducted audacious action with obvious political goals and was obviously intended to give a demonstrative response to the missile strikes actively carried out by the Russian side in the last days of March on fuel storage facilities in Ukraine. It can be assumed that the helicopters operated from the Dnepropetrovsk airfield, which, according to known data, is a major hub for the Ukrainian army aviation, and from where, in particular, Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters flew to supply Ukrainian forces surrounded in Mariupol (two Mi-8 helicopters were shot down on such a flight from Mariupol a day earlier by the DPR forces).
There is no doubt that the helicopters attacking Belgorod belonged to the Ukrainian side, and their flight itself was caught on several video recordings at once.
It should be noted that although this is the first known Ukrainian air strike on Russian territory, however, strikes with the use of missile weapons (Tochka-U and Smerch missile systems) and artillery have been inflicted on the territory of the Russian Federation before. The continued presence of Ukrainian armed forces and formations in the long border strip with Russia from Sumy to Kharkiv, of course, creates all the prerequisites for the continuation of such attacks, including, it is possible, in the form of ground raids.
Answering a question from journalists whether what happened near Belgorod is an escalation of the conflict, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said: "Of course, this is not something that can be perceived as creating conditions comfortable for the continuation of negotiations."
(c) Telegram channels
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