Pair praised for ‘mind-boggling bravery’ defusing bomb by hand
A VIDEO showing the hair-raising moment that two bomb disposal personnel defused a Russian bomb with their hands and a bottle of water has gone viral.
More than two million people have watched the 31-second clip from Ukraine, which shows one man pouring water over the end of the bomb to reduce friction in the fuse well while the other twists the seal out of it.
The defusing process would ordinarily be performed remotely.
Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute think tank in Washington, DC, posted the video to Twitter. He said the two men showed “mind-boggling bravery”.
“This Russia-dropped bomb would flatten a building – and yet these Ukraine EOD [explosive ordnance disposal] technicians defuse it with two hands and a bottle of water, while shells audibly land nearby,” he said.
The clip was shared by Ukrainian news outlet Nexta TV, shortly after Russia admitted to using thermobaric rockets in Ukraine that have the capability to “rupture lungs”.
“The Russian MOD has confirmed the use of the TOS-1A weapon system in Ukraine [which] uses thermobaric rockets, creating incendiary and blast effects,” said the Ministry of Defence.
Thermobaric bombs suck in oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, typically producing a blast wave of a significantly longer duration than that of a conventional explosive.
On impact with a target the rockets spread a fuel-air cloud that detonates a fraction of a second later.
The resultant pressure wave can crush human bodies even if they are not in the immediate vicinity of the strike.