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Russia's cheap glide bombs devastate Ukraine cities

May 20, 2024 00:00:00


Picture shows glide bomb

KYIV, May 19 (BBC): Russia is increasingly using "glide bombs" - cheap but highly destructive ordnance - to advance its offensive in Ukraine.

More than 200 of them are thought to have been used in just a week to pound Ukraine's northern town of Vovchansk during Russia's current cross-border advance near Kharkiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said 3,000 such bombs were dropped on the country in March alone.

Vovchansk police chief Oleksii Kharkivsky has seen the impact of glide bombs up close.

"There are no words to describe the aftermath of a glide bomb attack," he says. "You arrive to see people who are lying there, torn apart."

The mass use of glide bombs by Russia is a relatively recent development, one that has proven devastating for Ukrainian forces in recent months.

Glide bombs are built by adding fold-out wings and satellite navigation to old Soviet bombs. They are cheap but destructive.

A recent report by the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) said they were decisive in February's capture of the once heavily fortified key eastern town of Avdiivka.

Russian forces are now using glide bombs to attack the northern city of Kharkiv. Ukraine has so far struggled to counter them.

The Vovchansk police chief has been helping to evacuate front-line border villages in the Kharkiv region, where Russian forces have recently been advancing.


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