– You can feel how the organs shake

Vladimir Putin’s old bomb from the Soviet Union has become new. Now it is about to change the war.

– Everything is destroyed, absolutely everything: houses, defences, positions, shelters. And there are so many of them. We cannot stop them alone.

That’s what Maksim Zjorin, a soldier in Ukraine’s third assault brigade, writes on Telegram. He was one of many Ukrainian soldiers who tried to defend the Ukrainian town of Avdijivka against constant Russian attacks.

President Vladimir Putin’s men eventually won the city. In the week before the Russians stormed forward, up to 125 of Putin’s “new” bombs fell around Zjorin and the other soldiers – every day.

The Russian use of the bombs is about to change the war in Ukraine.

– Made it worse

The bombs that are now terrorizing Ukrainian soldiers and cities are primarily stock items from the Soviet Union.

The Russian arms industry produces wings and control mechanisms around the clock. These are put on the old bombs, which in turn are loaded onto Russian bombers.

The bombs are dropped at a good distance from Ukrainian air defenses. In the air, the new wings unfold, and with the help of satellite navigation, the bombs can be steered towards static targets. For example, a trench or a building.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has itself made a propaganda film about how it all takes place:

– You can feel how the organs shake. I started bleeding from my ears and nose and had to throw up. It was difficult to speak for days, says the Ukrainian soldier Drongo to the British newspaper The Times.

He experienced being nearby when a glide bomb hit.

– The Ukrainian front line has never been a pleasant place to be, but the glide bombs have made it even worse, sums up Lars Peder Haga.

He is an associate professor at the Norwegian Air Force School and follows the air battle over Ukraine closely.

In addition to being highly destructive, the glide bombs have another characteristic that causes Ukrainians to despair.

Cheap production

– The glide bombs are very difficult, almost impossible, to shoot down, says Haga.

He believes that the Russians have enough old bombs to terrorize Ukraine for years to come. The only thing stopping the Russians is the production of the new wing kit. However, that production is cheap and not very complicated.

– For the time being, we see that the Russians have used glide bombs of both 500 kilograms and 1,500 kilograms. If you hit a house with a 1,500 kilo bomb, there are no more houses left, he says.

And that is precisely what the Russians are now doing.

Commentator in The Independent Tom Watling states that the deadly Russian bombs are now about to change the war in Ukraine. So does The Times. Because the bombs were not only involved in taking the town of Avdijivka from the Ukrainian soldiers.

The glide bombs are also used in the daily attacks against Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv.

It could be a warning of what’s to come, experts say.

New Russian offensive?

The Russian independent online newspaper Meduza writes in an analysis that Putin’s new, big target is Kharkiv.

For weeks, the Russians have bombed the city and especially the city’s critical energy structure. At the end of March, the attacks were so powerful that the city was without power, electricity and public transport for days.

The use of the glide bombs can thus be part of preparing the ground for a larger attack.

But then Putin needs more soldiers. Another independent Russian online newspaper, Verstka, writes that the Kremlin plans to mobilize up to 300,000 new soldiers in an early summer offensive in the north.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyj, also says that they are preparing for a major Russian offensive in May or June this year.

Prayer from a soldier

Ukrainian soldier Maksim Zjorin writes on Telegram that Ukraine cannot face the new threat alone. But he has a solution to Putin’s deadly bomb: F-16s with good missiles. The first deliveries of the F-16 are expected from the US in the summer.

Haga warns against thinking that the F-16 will solve everything. He also reminds that the best missiles must then accompany, if the Ukrainians are to be able to handle the glide bombs. However, the researcher believes that it will take more than bombs if Putin is to take new, large areas.

– The big question is whether the Russians are able to follow up terrorist bombings with a well-organized ground force. Synchronization of complex operations has proven difficult for the Russians in the past, he says.