ST PETERSBURG (Sputnik) – Russia’s Western Military District denied on Tuesday the reports that rockets were fired at journalists at the Russia-Belarus Zapad-2017 military exercises.
“All reports on social media over ‘volleys at crowd of journalists,’ ‘large numbers of wounded’ are a deliberate provocation or someone’s personal stupidity,” the district said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, media reports and videos emerged claiming that a Ka-52 helicopter accidentally fired rockets at journalists.
Видео с последствиями на земле от случайного залпа ракетами вертолёта во время учений «Запад 2017» pic.twitter.com/Fkj499FdGK
— CIT (@CITeam_ru) 19 сентября 2017 г.
The Zapad-2017 (West-2017) military maneuvers started on Thursday on the territory of Russia and Belarus, and will be held through Wednesday. The exercises involve about 12,700 servicemen, including up to 5,500 from Russia and about 7,200 from Belarus.