2022 mass shooting in Soloti, Belgorod Oblast, Russia
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (November 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at [[:ru:Массовое убийство на полигоне в Белгородской области]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|ru|Массовое убийство на полигоне в Белгородской области}} to the talk page.
The attack began when two soldiers, who were natives of a CIS country, opened fire on personnel of the unit. After killing 11 and injuring 15, they were killed by return fire.[5][6] The attack occurred at a military training ground. According to Readovka the soldiers who were killed, mostly volunteers preparing to be sent to Ukraine, were going through a fire training session when the shooting happened.[6] The Associated Press reported that the shooting happened at a military firing range.[4]
According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, "the attack occurred during a fire training session with volunteers preparing for a special operation. Terrorists of one of the CIS countries fired small arms at the personnel of the unit, two shooters were killed by return fire."[5][6] Officials said they were opening a criminal investigation into the incident.[7]
The Russian media website ASTRA reported that the shooters were MuslimTajik nationals, and that they had gotten into an argument with other soldiers whether the war in Ukraine was "holy" (the Tajiks' position being that the only just war would be one waged by Muslims against infidels). They began the shooting after a lieutenant colonel allegedly described Allah as a "weakling" and "coward."[7] A "source close to the investigation committee" told RBK that the perpetrators were born in 1998 and 1999.[8] The father of one of the alleged shooters confirmed to RFE/RL that his son had died during the weekend the shooting happened. The shooter's brother told RFE/RL that his sibling was an "ordinary migrant" who immigrated to Moscow from Southern Tajikistan several months before. The Tajikistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they were investigating reports that their citizens were involved in the attack.[9]