Russian helicopters dropped thermal decoys on a village with Russian residents to prevent it from being hit by anti-aircraft missiles. The shots from the village of Rakitnoye, located near the border with Ukraine in the Belgorod region, were accompanied by reports from world bodies that units that had penetrated this Russian territory from Ukraine were attacking there. In another shot, a helicopter pilot does the same in the neighboring village of Krasnaya Jaruga.
Video: “They dropped it from our helicopter?” Confused Russians did not understand what was happening in Belgorod. | Videos: Reuters
In footage taken on May 22 by a local resident who wished to remain anonymous, a plane can be seen dropping what appears to be thermal bait on Rakitnoye, writes Reuters. In the video, a female voice can be heard screaming, “What is this? I don’t know!”
The video caused a stir on the Internet. One user said: “Did Russian helicopters drop traps in his private area so that anti-aircraft missiles don’t fly into them, but on civilians?” “If it had fallen on the house from such a height then I think there is a high chance it would have caught fire,” another person wrote, according to the agency. “They don’t care about civilians,” added a third in the post.
Russian investigators have so far launched an investigation into suspected terrorism, saying Ukrainian armed groups carried out cross-border attacks. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed on Tuesday, May 23, that it had managed to push the remnants back into Ukraine. More than 70 attackers were killed, Reuters quoted the ministry as saying. However, similar reports from the battlefield could not be independently verified.
As he stated on Twitter Financial Times Ukraine correspondent Christopher Miller managed to reach Denis Nikitin, who heads the Russian Volunteer Corps, one of the units involved in the diversion. And according to him, the operation in Belgorod is still ongoing. Ukraine itself has denied any involvement in the incident, saying Russian insurgents were behind it.
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