Kharkiv suffering under Russian ‘dumb bombs’
Russia is deploying a powerful and previously unseen weapon as part of its escalating assault on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, officials said yesterday.
Volodymyr Tymoshko, the head of the Kharkiv regional police, said that deadly strikes on Ukraine’s second city on Wednesday were carried out with what he called UMPB D-30 bombs.
“This is something between a guided aerial bomb, which they [the Russians] have used recently, and a missile. It’s a flying bomb, so to say,” he said.
Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said Russia was “testing” the “powerful” new weapons on residential targets.
At least 16 people were injured and one killed by air strikes on Wednesday, the latest in a series of attacks on Kharkiv, which is still affected by power cuts from a missile barrage last week.
Mr Syniehubov said that the UMPD-30 had a range of 90km (56 miles), and could be fired from both aircraft and ground-based rocket launchers.
Ukrainian military bloggers had circulated photos of the wreckage of a munition described as a UMPB D-30 earlier this month, which combined a standard FAB-250 freefall bomb – known as “dumb bombs” – with a satellite navigation system, wings, and a jet engine to improve range and accuracy.
The system appears to be an upgrade on previous “glide bombs” introduced by the Russian air force last year, which combined freefall bombs with wings and basic navigation equipment.
The glide bombs allowed Russian pilots to launch the munitions from longer range, reducing the danger they faced from Ukraine’s air defences. Ukrainian military sources say they have struggled to neutralise the FABs.
Makysm Zhorin, of Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, said that Russia dropped dozens of bombs each day to devastating effect, adding: “These bombs completely destroy any position. All buildings and structures simply turn into a pit after the arrival of just one.”
Thomas Newdick, an air warfare specialist, said Russia had the capacity to keep mass-producing FABs and experimenting with variations, while struggling to replace more advanced weapons.
He sad: “I think a lot of [the impact] is due to the sheer number of these weapons being used.”
He said that the UMPB D-30 being launched from groundbased systems is “troubling” for Ukraine as Russia can deploy them without risking its aircraft.