Ukraine has denied Russia used a weapon dubbed “the father of all bombs” in the northeast of the country, as experts increasingly point to a smaller, but still highly destructive weapon utilized in an attack on the Kharkiv region earlier this week.
Russian and Ukrainian sources shared footage on Tuesday that purported to show Moscow’s forces striking the embattled northeastern Ukrainian settlement of Vovchansk with an ODAB-9000 thermobaric bomb.
Vitaliy Sarantsev, a spokesperson for Ukrainian forces operating around the Kharkiv region, which includes Vovchansk, said Russia had instead used a smaller glide bomb, not the weapon sometimes referred to as the “father of all bombs.”
The reports are “not true,” Sarantsev said in a statement. To launch an ODAB-9000, Sarantsev said, Russia would use one of its Tu-160 strategic bombers, “but the movement of such aircraft was not recorded.”
A Ukrainian officer runs in front of a burning house destroyed by a Russian airstrike in Vovchansk, Ukraine, on Saturday, May 11, 2024. Footage emerged earlier this week that purported to show Russian forces striking the embattled Ukrainian settlement with an ODAB-9000 bomb although Kyiv has denied that the thermobaric weapon was used against the town.
AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
“A smaller weight and power munition was used, the explosion of which was used by propagandists to create a ‘spectacular’ picture,” the spokesperson added.
“Russian claims that a giant thermobaric weapon, the ODAB-9000, has been used do not seem plausible,” said weapons expert and journalist, David Hambling. A huge bomb, the ODAB-9000 is “several times bigger than other Russian weapons,” Hambling told Newsweek.
“The lack of obvious damage to the buildings around suggests a smaller scale blast,” Hambling said.
Other sources, including at least one of Russia’s influential military bloggers, suggested the bomb used on Vovchansk was a smaller ODAB-1500. This is “more plausible,” Hambling said.
Russia has previously said it has used ODAB-1500 bombs in Ukraine. Kyiv also reported Russian use of thermobaric weapons within weeks of the start of full-scale war in the country. Western governments quickly confirmed the use of the TOS-1A multiple launch rocket system with thermobaric warheads in Ukraine in early 2022.
Thermobaric weapons are sometimes referred to as “vacuum bombs,” and use two detonations to create more destructive explosions than conventional weapons. They were used by Soviet forces in Afghanistan and Chechnya, as well as by the U.S. military in the 1960s.
But footage of the claimed ODAB-9000 explosion doesn’t show a “rapidly expanding white bubble of water vapor typically seen around major explosions, especially thermobarics,” Hambling said. This would be “the expected signature of the larger weapon” and was visible in a video showing a test of the ODAB-9000 back in 2017, Hambling added.
Vovchansk has been pummelled for months by Russian aerial strikes, not least using highly-destructive glide bombs.
Russia has used unguided glide bombs like the FAB-500, and precision-guided glide bombs like the KAB, against Ukraine for months. Many FABs have been upgraded with guidance and glide kits.
Russian aircraft have been able to launch these bombs out of the reach of Ukraine’s air defenses, with Kyiv struggling to stop the aerial onslaught.
It is not clear whether Russia has been able to test and use a glide system able to deliver a bomb the size of the parachute-delivered ODAB-9000, Hambling said.
