Why Ukraine does not acknowledge or deny responsibility for the apparent attacks in Russia
Around 5: 24 on the morning of April 1, a fuel depot burst into flames in the Russian town of Belgorod, located less than 50 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
A video that circulated on social networks, which was verified by the BBC, showed what appeared to be the fall of some missiles on the facility as two helicopters, unleashing a series of explosions that ended in a huge ball of fire.
Some media reported, based on images from other videos, that two helicopters that seemed to be Mi-8 had overflown at low altitude other nearby towns in hours close to the explosions.
The regional governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, accused Ukraine for launching an attack on that facility, and shortly after, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said that two Ukrainian helicopters Mi-24 had entered Russian airspace at an extremely low altitude and had “launched a missile attack on a civilian-type fuel depot” on the outskirts of Belgorod.
It was not the first time that suspicious explosions had occurred on Russian territory since the 24 February Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine. Just a few days before, the 13 March, several explosions were reported at an ammunition depot near Belgorod.
This time, however, was different, as As explained by Jonathan Beale, defense correspondent for the BBC, if the involvement of kyiv in the explosion was confirmed, it was the first time that Ukrainian aircraft crossed into Russian territory to attack a target.
But Despite Moscow’s accusations, kyiv did not assume any responsibility for the attack. Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksandr Motuzyanyk claimed that Russia’s “aggression” was being repelled “on the territory of Ukraine”.
“That does not mean that Ukraine is responsible for all those catastrophes and all those events that occur on the territory of the Russian Federation. This is not the first time we have seen such accusations. So, dear friends, I am not going to confirm or deny that information” he pointed out.
Accidents or attacks?
Since then, numerous suspicious incidents have been reported on Russian territory.
Last 25 April, for example, the town of Bryansk, located about 155 kilometers northeast of the border with Ukraine, woke up to blackened skies due to a fire in a major oil pipeline. The regional governor, Aleksandr Bogomaz, reported a fire in a fuel depot, but did not explain the causes.
There have also been explosions near Russian military installations and even in an institute of military research in the city of Tver, near Moscow.
No one knows the exact figure, but the media have reported more than a dozen of these events.
“They have occurred in different parts of the country. They have happened in research centers, in facilities usually linked to the military and other strategic production centers , so it seems quite obvious that these explosions are not they are a coincidence”, Matthew Orr, Eurasia analyst at Rane, a geopolitical risk analysis consultancy based in Houston, told BBC Mundo.