They say the deeper a soldier digs, the better his chances of survival. But on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, the destructive power of a new Russian weapon is testing the faith of soldiers, The Times reports.
A crater 15 meters across and deeper than any Ukrainian trench has formed in a field outside the town of Lyman. The Russian bomb left a hole big enough to fit a small house. Without Western fighter jets providing the necessary air cover, Ukrainian soldiers have nothing to protect them except prayer.
The trenches offer little protection against the enemy's intensifying air campaign. In the past two weeks, Russia has twice carried out massive missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure. According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Moscow also dropped 700 high-explosive bombs in 6 days.
Last week, a cluster bomb fell on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Russia began using the bombs early last year. But their devastating effect was most clearly seen during the fighting for Avdiivka, when Russian fighter-bombers dropped 250 of them on the city in two days.
By modifying Soviet bombs with a planning module that allows them to “glide” to the target, and adding basic satellite navigation systems, Russia gains air control over the cities and villages of Donbas.
KAB and FAB bombs can be launched 40 miles behind the front line and fall to the ground in a matter of minutes, making them difficult to shoot down by Ukrainian air defenses designed to find a recognizable trajectory.
Gliding bombs range in size from the 250kg FAB-250 to the largest FAB-1500, weighing 1.5 tonnes, almost half of which is explosive. Ominously, Russia is currently producing the three-tonne FAB-3000 and will begin production of the Drel cluster-warhead glider bomb later this year.
According to Kremlin-linked military bloggers, Russian engineers may even add a jet engine and fuel tank to the glide bombs, which would increase their range to 55 miles and turn them into a basic cruise missile similar to the V1 used by the Germans in World War II.
For now, the bombs that are being dropped remain inaccurate. Russian generals have had to make compromises to improve their aiming. They carefully guarded their fighters during the first two years of the conflict. But to drop bombs more accurately, Russian pilots must climb to high altitudes and dangerously close to the front lines, exposing themselves to Ukrainian air defenses.
However, the impressive tally of downed aircraft came to a halt when two Patriot batteries were destroyed in Pokrovsk early last month. Air defense systems are probably more valuable to Ukrainian commanders than fighter jets are to their Russian counterparts, and they are reluctant to put them at risk. “I assure you that anti-aircraft missile units, including those equipped with Patriots, continue to perform their missions in designated frontline areas,” Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleschuk said after the Patriot losses.
But as Russia steps up nighttime missile attacks on Ukraine, Kyiv must decide whether to protect civilians hundreds of miles from the front line or cover its forward troops in the Donbas by moving air defenses around the country like pieces on a chessboard.
Worse still, Kyiv is having to economize on air defense missiles due to the delay in the aid package from the U.S. In contrast, there are no deterrents for Russia when it comes to the bombs themselves, and the calculation comes down to whether they are willing to risk their planes.
Russia’s advantage in striking the front line may increasingly come at the cost of losing an aircraft. According to Jack Watling, a senior fellow at the Royal Armed Forces Institute in the UK, the difference between dropping bombs 45 miles away and 25 miles away is the difference between a targeted strike on an entire village and a strike on a specific Ukrainian position.
