Investigative journalists: “Ukrainian missile” that hit Belgorod was launched from Russian territory

Roman Petrenko – Saturday, 2 April 2022, 12:19

Investigative journalists from the Conflict Intelligence Team, a Russian independent investigative media outlet, say that the missile that was allegedly launched from the territory of Ukraine and which landed near Belgorod, was launched from the northeast – meaning that it was launched from the territory of the Russian Federation.

Source: Conflict Intelligence Team

According to CIT: "We have managed to geolocate the location from which the missile strike was recorded. It turned out that the camera was pointing to the southeast, and the missile appears to be travelling from left to right, meaning from the east or the northeast and, therefore, from the territory of Russia.

The size of the funnel suggests that it was created by a cruise or ballistic missile. We do not know of instances of use of cruise missiles by the Ukrainian side in this conflict. Moreover, a Ukrainian ballistic missile would have arrived from the Ukrainian positions, that is, from the west or southwest.

In addition, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov of Belgorod, a similar incident took place at the same time near [the village of] Yasnye Zori in the Belgorod region. Given that the village would be along the missile’s trajectory if it was launched from Nikolskoye, it is possible that this incident is related to the Belgorod strike.

We cannot unequivocally say whether the incident was caused by something that derailed the rocket from its trajectory, or an aiming error. Given that this event has barely been covered in the Russian state media, this launch of a missile from Russian territory is unlikely to have been a deliberate Russian provocation done in order to accuse Ukraine.

One way or another, unlike the attack on the fuel depot (and possibly some other facilities), we are ready to rule out Ukraine’s involvement in this incident."

Background:

• On 1 April pro-Kremlin Russian state media reported that a missile "launched from the territory of Ukraine" landed in the Belgorod region.
• On the morning of 1 April, Russian media reported a fire at the fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border.
• Vyacheslav Gladkov, the Governor of the Belgorod region, stated that the fire was caused by airstrikes from two Ukrainian military helicopters which entered the territory of the Russian Federation at low altitude.
• Dmitriy Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, stated that the explosion at the Belgorod field depot was not conducive to the continuation of negotiations between the two countries.