KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — The first shockwave shattered aisles filled almost to the ceiling with home improvement products. The next Russian bomb struck like a comet seconds later, igniting flames that left the megastore a shell of ash.
A third bomb failed to explode when it landed behind the Epicenter shopping complex in Kharkiv. Investigators hope this will help them trace the supply chain of the latest generation of modernized Russian “gliding bombs” which are ravaging eastern Ukraine. Soviet-era bombs are cheaply retrofitted with imported electronics that allow faraway Russian warplanes to drop them into Ukraine.
Other towns devastated by weapons include Avdiivka, Chasiv Yar and Vovchanskand Russia has an almost unlimited supply of bombs, which are shipped from airfields just across the border in Ukraine. failed to hit.
Store manager Oleksandr Lutsenko said the May 25 attack suggests Russia’s goal for Kharkiv: “Their objective is to turn it into a ghost town, to ensure that no one stays, that there is nothing to defend, that it makes no sense to defend the city. They want to scare people, but they won’t succeed. »
Russia has accelerated the destruction of Ukraine’s front-line cities in 2024 on a scale never before seen in the war using glide bombs and a growing network of airstrips, according to an Associated Press analysis of images from drones, satellite images, Ukrainian documents and Russian photos. .
The results are visible in the intensity of recent Russian attacks. It took a year to Russia wants to destroy Bakhmut, where the bombs were first used. This was followed by destruction in Avdiivka that lasted for months. Then it took just a few weeks to do the same to Vovchansk and Chasiv Yar, according to images analyzed by AP showing the smoldering ruins of the two cities.
Today, Russia is putting the finishing touches on another airstrip less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Ukraine and regularly launches bombs from several bases just inside Russia’s borders, according to the AP analysis of satellite images and photos from a Russian air force Telegram. channel.
THE bombardment of the epicenter In Kharkiv, 19 people were killed, including two children. In total, gliding bombs have hit the city more than 50 times this year, according to Spartak Borysenko of the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office.
He showed AP investigative documents that identified at least eight Russian air bases used to launch the attacks, all within 100 kilometers (60 miles) of Ukraine. He said at least one of the munitions contained foreign electronic components and was manufactured in May. This date suggests that Russia is using the bombs quickly and has successfully circumvented sanctions on dual-use goods.
Photos on Russian Telegram channels linked to the military show glide bombs being launched three or four at a time. In a four-bomb drop, the AP pinpointed the plane’s location just outside the Russian city of Belgorod, near the air base currently under construction. The four bombs in the photo were heading west – with Vovchansk and Kharkiv in their direct line of fire.
In late May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was dropping more than 3,000 bombs every month, 3,200 of which were used in May alone.
Oleh Katkov, whose military site Defense Express was the first to trace the launch location, said strike airbases is the key to slowing the pace of bombing by forcing Russian planes to take off further away.
“This does not mean that they will completely stop their bombing, but it will become more difficult for them,” Katkov said. “They will be able to carry out fewer sorties per day.”
The Associated Press has obtained rare drone footage of the destroyed ruins of the besieged town of Vovchansk in northeastern Ukraine, as Russian forces attempt to capture the Ukrainian region known as Donbass.
For months, Ukrainian officials have complained bitterly about restrictions on the use of Western-supplied weapons against targets in Russia, including airfields housing Russian bombers. The United States and Germany Recently, some targets in Russia have been authorized, but many others remain prohibited.
The newest airfield, located just outside Belgorod, has a 2,000-meter (yard) runway, according to the AP analysis. Construction began in late summer 2023, during the failure of the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
A Ukrainian intelligence official, who provided information to AP on condition of anonymity, said his government had been closely monitoring the construction, which did not yet appear finished in a photo taken in mid-June.
The official also noted that Belarus provides refuge for Russian bombers. A map created by Ukrainian battlefield analysis site DeepState shows 10 airfields in Belarus, including five just across the border with Ukraine.
In total, the DeepState map shows 51 bases used by Russia within 600 kilometers (370 miles) of Ukrainian-controlled territory, including three in occupied eastern Ukraine, six on the illegally occupied Crimean Peninsula annexed and 32 in Russia.
“Russia’s greatest strategic advantage over Ukraine is its advantage in the sky” Zelenskyy said last week. “This is a terrorist terror based on missiles and bombs that helps Russian troops advance on the ground.”
Russia launches up to 100 guided bombs daily, Zelensky said. In addition to missiles and drones, which Russia already uses regularly for attacks, bombs cause “incredibly destructive pressure.”
The base material for glide bombs comes from hundreds of thousands of Soviet-era unguided bombs, which are then fitted with retractable fins and guidance systems to carry 500 to 3,000 kilograms (1,100 to 6,600 pounds). ) explosives. The upgrade costs about $20,000 per bomb, according to the Center for European Policy Analysis, and the bombs can be launched up to 65 kilometers (40 miles) from their targets, or outside their target range . Ukraine’s regular air defense systems.
The bombs are similar in concept to the U.S. Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, missiles, whose GPS systems were successfully jammed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Because Russia does not have the strength to occupy eastern cities like Kharkiv, Bombing is their preferred optionsaid Nico Lange, an analyst at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
“From their perspective, the strategy seems to be to terrorize the towns enough that people leave,” Lange said.
Back at the Epicenter home improvement store, surveillance footage taken just before the explosion showed saleswoman Nina Korsunova walking across the floor toward the aisle she occupied that day. Then there was a blinding flash and the camera stopped.
Korsunova curled up in the fetal position as a screen crashed down on her. She uncovered her eyes just in time to see the second bomb explosion inside. With burst eardrums, she heard nothing and saw no sign of life.
“I thought I was alone and that they had abandoned me there. It gave me the strength to get through it,” she said. She crawled over piles of broken lamps and cables twisted around her legs as she climbed through the debris of the power supply aisle.
Epicenter shopping complex destroyed. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Two weeks later, the skeleton of the building gave off a disorienting smell of burning metal and laundry detergent leaking from melted jugs in the cleaning supplies aisle.
Neither Korsunova nor the store manager intends to leave their hometown.
“It didn’t break me,” she said. “I will stay in Kharkiv. “It’s my house.”
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Hinnant reported from Paris. Arhirova reported from Kyiv. Associated Press journalists Volodymyr Yurchuk, Susie Blann and Samya Kullab in Kyiv and graphic designer Phil Holm in New York contributed to this report.
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Contact AP’s global investigations team at [email protected] Or https://www.ap.org/tips/