‘Second only to a nuclear bomb’ – the controversial arms Russia is using in Ukraine

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‘Second only to a nuclear *****’ – the controversial arms Russia is using in Ukraine

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Russian forces are ‘finally bringing to bear their heaviest firepower’ in their war against Ukrainian forces. | Credit: ID1974 / Shutterstock

Russia has trained its navy to target sites deep inside Europe with nuclear-capable missiles if there is a conflict with Nato, according to leaked secret files.

Maps of targets as “far-flung” as “Barrow-in-Furness” in northwest England are included in a presentation for officers that “predates the full-scale invasion of Ukraine”, which began in February 2022, said the

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The news comes as controversy grows over some of the weapons Moscow has used during the conflict in Ukraine, including the thermobaric *****, which produces a blast that is “second only to a nuclear *****”, said

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What weapons are Russia using?

Moscow announced this week that it had used a thermobaric ***** against Ukrainian forces. Also known as a vacuum *****, the missile’s extra hot blast is “capable of vaporising human bodies”, said

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. It can also ***** people by making their lungs “explode”, said

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Thermobaric ****** are conventional weapons in that they are not guided by satellites and can be launched as a rocket or dropped as a ***** from aircraft.

The Russians are “finally bringing to bear their heaviest firepower”, said F

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, by “lobbing powerful glide ******” at Ukrainian troops.

Glide ****** are remote-controlled warheads that can fly towards targets over long distances. With a range of 25 miles or more, and containing “hundreds of pounds of explosives”, glide ****** weigh as much as three tons and are “powerful but inaccurate”, so they “pose a serious danger” to civilians. “Assuming, of course”, that “the civilians themselves aren’t the target”.

“There are no words to describe the aftermath of a glide ***** *******,” a Ukrainian police chief told the

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. “You arrive to see people who are lying there, torn apart.”

Moscow has also been criticised for its use of cluster munitions on the battlefield, particularly RBK-500 ******. They contain more than 80 “bomblets”, said

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, each of which is about the size of a hand grenade. Its shaped charge can “***** infantry”, but also “penetrate” light-skinned vehicles.

Are they used elsewhere?

Thermobaric ****** are believed to have been used in Afghanistan, in different locations in the Middle East, including the Syrian Civil War, and “even in a ********** ******* in Bali, Indonesia”, said

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Glide ****** were devised during the First World War but didn’t start to be used until the Second World War. The “widely condemned” use of cluster ****** can also be traced back to the 1939-45 conflict, said

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They were used during the Vietnam War, when the US dropped 413,130 tonnes of cluster munitions. They’ve also been used by British armed forces in the Falklands War, Yugoslav troops during the Bosnian conflict, and in various wars in the Middle East.

What do international conventions say?

International law does not prohibit the use of thermobaric munitions against military targets and all past attempts to regulate and restrict the weapons have “*******”, said news.com. However, targeting civilians with the weapons is against international law.

The legal status of glide ****** is less clear, so Russian pilots have inflicted this particular “scourge” with “impunity”, said

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Under the leadership of Jens Stoltenberg, Nato barred 124 member nations from stockpiling, using or manufacturing cluster ****** because of their indiscriminate nature and long-term humanitarian impact.

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#nuclear #***** #controversial #arms #Russia #Ukraine

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