Two helicopters from Ukraine, flying low, fired missiles at an oil depot on Friday. This was the first strike against Russian soil since troops invaded neighboring country, according to the Kremlin. Reports suggest that Russian troops have become demoralized, refusing to obey orders.
Belgorod was a city of around 400,000 located approximately 20 miles from the Ukrainian border. The area was used by Russian troops as a staging ground to enter eastern Ukraine. This region was invaded by Vladimir Putin on February 24th.
News video and photos revealed orange flames shooting out of the depot, as well as billowing black clouds.
The airstrike followed reports from Britain’s spy chief that Russian troops were demoralized and were refusing to carry out orders in Ukraine, sabotaging their own equipment and had accidentally shot down their own aircraft.
Jeremy Fleming is the head of the GCHQ electronic surveillance agency. He made the statements in a speech Thursday in Canberra.
“We’ve seen Russian soldiers, short of weapons and morale, refusing to carry out orders, sabotaging their own equipment and even accidentally shooting down their own aircraft,”Fleming stated.
Putin, he stated. “misjudged the resistance of the Ukrainian people. He underestimated the strength of the coalition his actions would galvanize. He underplayed the economic consequences of the sanctions regime, and he overestimated the abilities of his military to secure a rapid victory.”
Fleming was kind enough to praise Volodymyr Zelenskyy the Ukrainian President for his leadership. “information operation”Russia’s disinformation and propaganda campaign against the invasion.
There were also reports that Russian troops had abandoned the highly contaminated Chernobyl nuclear power plant, after being beaten up by soldiers. “significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches there, according to Energoatom, Ukraine’s state power company.
As fighting raged on several fronts, including the outskirts of Urkraine capital Kyiv, Russian soldiers were leaving the closed plant, which is the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
The troops “panicked at the first sign of illness,”Which “showed up very quickly,”And began to prepare for departure.” Energoatom said. The plant’s massive radiation leak occurred in 1986.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant is now back in Ukrainian hands, but hasn’t confirmed reports that Russian troops left because they were experiencing radiation sickness
The United Nations nuclear watchdog’s top official said Friday that he would lead a mission to Chernobyl “As soon as possible” to investigate radiation levels and the integrity of the plant, which still houses and processes nuclear waste.
“This will be the first of a series of nuclear safety and security missions. #Ukraine,” Rafael Grossi said Friday on Twitter.