Footage has emerged of a Russian TOS-1A thermobaric MLRS purportedly being blasted in the Bakhmut area of Ukraine, where there has been intense fighting over the Christmas period.
The video, posted on Twitter and said to have been filmed a week ago, shows the weapon being raised from the tank before several rounds of rockets are fired.
They can be seen exploding on the ground through the eyes of the soldiers firing them, in black and white footage with the crosshair visible on the screen.
The TOS-1A is used to clear out buildings, bunkers and field fortifications. It is also effective against light armoured vehicles and was adopted by the Russian Army in 2001.
A video, said to have been filmed ‘a week ago’ was posted on Twitter today of a Russian TOS-1A thermobaric MLRS ‘in the Bakhmut area of Ukraine
Footage shows the weapon being raised from the tank before the several rounds of rockets are fired
In the footage, missiles can be seen exploding on the ground through the eyes of the soldiers firing them, in black and white footage with the crosshair visible on the screen
Thermobaric bombs work in two stages. When a charge is deployed, the first blast sprays a fuel vapour throughout the surrounding area.
A second blast then ignites the vapour cloud in the air.
Thermobaric bombs are not banned under international law, but countries using them risk being convicted of a war crime.
After Ukraine’s forces recaptured the southern city of Kherson in November, most of the heaviest fighting has taken place around Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region, which Russia has been trying to take for months.
There has also been intense conflict further north in the cities of Svatove and Kreminna, where Ukraine is trying to break Russian defensive lines.
Bakhmut was home to 70,000 people before the war.
Pictured: A building burns in the south part of shelled area in Bakhmut, Ukraine on December 21
Pictured: A Ukrainian grad launcher fires from the launch, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, on the frontline in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on December 24, 2022
Pictured: Ukrainian servicemen fire with a CAESAR self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions in eastern Ukraine on December 28, 2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that ‘only a few civilians’ remained there after months of conflict.
Fighting for Bakhmut has worsened over Christmas after Russian armed forces deployed a fresh wave of troops and armoured vehicles on the front lines amid a barrage of new rocket attacks.
The city has been reduced to a bombed-out ghost town where debris is strewn across the streets amid constant blasts.
The city sits on an important confluence of supply routes and, when fighting started at least, was seen as a vital staging point for assaults further into Donbas – particularly the nearby cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.
Pictured: A soldier of a Ukrainian intelligence battalion takes cover from artillery shelling on the frontline on December 28, 2022 in Bakhmut, Ukraine
Pictured: Smoke billows after Russian attacks in the outskirts of Bakhmut, Ukraine on December 27, 2022
In Bakhmut city centre, where most buildings have been set ablaze, soldiers are engaged in brutal urban warfare, shooting at one another amid the ruins while trying to avoid being blown to pieces by artillery fire.
The surrounding countryside meanwhile has been turned into a muddy hell-scape across which Russian troops are forced to march in futile WW1-style attempts to gain ground.
Whole forests have been cut down by artillery shells, tanks and drone strikes while soldiers hunker down in swamp-like trenches, blasting one another across the new European no-man’s land.
Ukraine was hit with ‘massive’ Russian missile strikes across the country on Thursday morning, including in the capital Kyiv.
‘The enemy is attacking Ukraine from various directions with air and sea-based cruise missiles from strategic aircraft and ships,’ Ukraine’s air force said on social media.
Pictured: Soldiers of a Ukrainian intelligence battalion gather information on the frontline on December 28, 2022 in Bakhmut, Ukraine
Pictured: A mortar shell explodes as soldiers of a Ukrainian intelligence battalion evacuate a local resident from a basement with an armoured vehicle on the frontline on December 28, 2022 in Bakhmut, Ukraine
Pictured: Smoke billows after Russian attacks in the outskirts of Bakhmut, Ukraine, on December 27, 2022
According to presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak, more than 120 missiles were fired.
Two private houses were hit by fragments of downed missiles in the east of the capital, while an ‘industrial enterprise’ and a playground were damaged in the city’s southwest, the Kyiv city military administration said.
There was a ‘series of explosions’ in Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv in the east, mayor Igor Terekhov said.
Blasts were also reported in the western city of Lviv, mayor Andryi Sadovyi said.
Lviv region governor Maksim Kozytski said air defence was operating and called on residents to take stay in shelters.
Ukrainian Railways said numerous train lines were delayed as a result of power outages.
Pictured: Local people who received food supply in an humanitarian aid distribution as daily life continues in Bakhmut, Ukraine on December 21, 2022
Pictured: Pilaheia Mykhailivna, 73 puts wood she and her neighbours chopped up from cutting down municipal city trees, into a wheelbarrow, to burn for heat, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, during intense shelling in Bakhmut on December 26, 2022
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram that the capital could experience power cuts and urged residents to charge their devices and stock up on reserves of water.
Power cuts were also announced in the Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions, aimed at minimising potential damage to the energy infrastructure.
Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said 90 per cent of the western city is without power and also warned of water disruptions as a result of Russian attacks Thursday.
‘We are waiting for more information from the power engineers. Trams and trolleybuses are not running in the city. There may be interruptions in water supply. We are switching to diesel generators at critical infrastructure facilities,’ Sadovyi said on Telegram.
Aftermath of Russian missile strike on a residential area in the Darnytsky district of Kyiv, Ukraine
The latest Defence Intelligence update from the Ministry of Defence said: ‘In the early hours of 26 December 2022, Russia’s Engels Air Base was attacked for the second time in three weeks.
‘Russian media reported that uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) were responsible for the strike on the facility, one of the main operating bases of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet.
‘Russia has long given a very high priority to maintaining advanced ground-based air defences, but it is increasingly clear that it is struggling to counter air threats deep inside Russia.’
The head of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency has said that the conflict is currently at a standstill as both Ukraine and Russia are failing to make significant progress.
Kyiv has repeatedly asked for more advanced weapons from Western allies.
Kyrylo Budanov told the BBC in an interview that Russia was now at a dead end having experienced very major losses, and he believed Russia had decided to announce another mobilisation of conscripts.
He argued that Ukrainian forces are still short of resources to push forward in several areas.
‘We can’t defeat them in all directions comprehensively. Neither can they,’ he said.
‘We’re very much looking forward to new weapons supplies, and to the arrival of more advanced weapons.’
Pictured: Major General Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Military Intelligence of Ukraine, speaks during an interview with Reuters, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 25, 2022
Earlier this month, after a string of Russian military failures, Ukrainian officials warned that another ground offensive by Moscow’s forces from Belarus could take place at the beginning of 2023.
They said the push could feature a second attempt to capture the capital, Kyiv, and involve tens of thousands of reservists being trained in Russia.
However, Mr Budanov said Russia’s proceedings in Belarus, including the movement of thousands of troops, were aimed at forcing Ukraine to divert troops from the battlefields in the south and east to the north.
The interview came days after Russian President Vladimir Putin made a trip to the Belarusian capital, Minsk, for the first time in more than three years.
His visit caused fears that he might try to persuade long-time ally President Alexander Lukashenko to send troops from Belarus to Ukraine.
Mr Budanov believes society in Belarus will not get behind any further involvement in the conflict and analysts have raised doubt as to how prepared its army is.
Pictured: Major General Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine
He said he saw no significant, immediate threat from the troops in Belarus.
For Russia, taking Bakhmut would sever Ukraine’s supply lines and allow for a push towards other Ukrainian strongholds in the east, including Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
Mr Budanov said the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary army, was leading the offensive.
Its founder, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, is thought to want to take the city as a political trophy, amid rivalries between senior Russian officials.
Russia has been involved in a relentless air campaign since mid-October, hitting Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with drones and missiles, leaving a large chunk of the population without water, heating or electricity,
Mr Budanov said the strikes were likely to continue, but suggested Russia would not be able to sustain the level of the attacks because of diminishing missile reserves, and the inability of Russian industry to replenish them.
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