Zelensky says Russia fired 800 glide bombs in a week

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Russia fired more than 800 glide bombs at Ukraine in just the last week, as Moscow continues to use the modified Soviet-era explosives to kill both soldiers and civilians.

- TOM WATLING

The bombs, which have been retrofitted with precision guidance systems and can be launched from aircraft flying out of range of Ukrainian air defences, have proved pivotal for Moscow in its effort to regain the initiative on the front line in recent months. The bombs can weigh more than a tonne, and are capable of reducing entire multistorey buildings to rubble.

Residents of Kharkiv, one of the most frequently targeted civilian-populated areas in Ukraine, described the use of the bombs as a type of psychological torture, as even bomb shelters fail to protect against explosives that create such deep craters.

“This week alone, Russia has used more than 800 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine,” Mr Zelensky wrote on X. “Against our cities and communities, against our people, against everything that makes life normal. Ukraine needs the necessary means to destroy the carriers of these bombs, including Russian combat aircraft, wherever they are. This step is essential.