Russian warplanes have repeatedly dropped munitions over Belgorod Oblast during the war due to reported malfunctions in glide kits, leading to bombs falling on populated areas.
On December 18, officials confirmed that the bomb dropped near Kindergarten No. 55 in Belgorod on December 12 was an FAB-500, a high-explosive aerial bomb designed to destroy buildings, equipment and personnel. The munition was removed from the crater on December 13 and was to be destroyed at a training ground near the village of Butovo.
According to the Telegram channel Astra, the bomb dropped by a Russian aircraft was the 135th munition to fall on Russian territory and occupied areas of Ukraine since the start of 2025.
Authorities evacuated 216 people from the kindergarten and at least 1,400 residents from nearby homes.
Local officials say bombs have been falling in Belgorod and the wider region due to technical faults. What residents describe as a terrifying pattern, Russia’s Defense Ministry has referred to as an “unplanned release of a munition from a Russian fighter-bomber.” The issue has been linked to malfunctions in UMPK glide kits or planning modules: the module’s wings sometimes fail to deploy after release, causing the bomb to drop shortly after separation instead of gliding to its target.
This was not the first such incident this month. On December 6, a Russian pilot dropped a bomb that destroyed a substation in Belgorod, leading to a power outage in the city.
