Russia's gliding 'destroyer' changing the face of the war

In a Ukrainian stronghold near the front line, less than 20 miles from the eastern city of Donetsk, a winged bomb is seen hurtling towards a multistorey building.

- TOM WATLING

The 1,500kg explosive hits the structure in the town of Krasnohorivka, erupting into a fireball before engulfing the whole building in a plume of grey and black smoke. The camera, filming from several hundred metres away, shakes as the ground beneath it rocks from the aftereffects of the explosion. When the smoke subsides, the building has been completely destroyed.

This footage is one of the latest examples of Russia’s deadly new weapon, one that is proving devastating for Ukrainian defensive positions on or near the front line.

The causes of recent Russian advances in Donetsk are multifaceted – Ukraine is facing weapons and ammunition shortages as Western allies drag their feet over fresh funding and military aid – but Moscow’s newly modified FAB-1500 warheads (the number relates to its weight in kilograms) are doing plenty of damage.

Ukraine also uses guided bombs similar to the FABs, known as the joint direct attack munition system (JDAM), but the US-made weapons are in much shorter supply. John Foreman, the former UK defence attache to Moscow, describes the FABs as less effective than the JDAMs but a much cheaper weapon and one that is ultimately much more readily available to Russian forces than the JDAMs are to Ukraine.

The Russian warhead is a modified version of Soviet-era FAB bombs, the first of which, the FAB-250, was designed in 1946. These models are air-dropped warheads, carried by fighter jets, with a significant blast impact. But unlike its predecessors, all of which were especially powerful, it has been fitted with wings that allow it to fly towards its target, thereby converting it into a guided, as opposed to unguided, explosive.