KHARKIV, Ukraine — The first shock wave destroyed aisles filled almost to the ceiling with home improvement products. The next Russian bomb fell like a comet seconds later, unleashing flames that turned the megastore into an ashen shell.
A third bomb failed to detonate when it landed behind the Epicenter shopping complex in Kharkiv. Researchers hope it will help them trace the supply chain of the latest generation of Modernized Russian “slide bombs” that are devastating eastern Ukraine. Soviet-era bombs are cheaply retrofitted with imported electronic components that allow distant Russian warplanes to drop them toward Ukraine.
Other cities that have been devastated by weapons include Avdiivka, Chasiv Yar and Vovchanskand Russia has almost unlimited supplies of bombs, which are shipped from airfields just across the border in Ukraine. could not hit.
Store manager Oleksandr Lutsenko said the May 25 attack hints Russia’s goal for Kharkiv: “Its objective is turn it into a ghost town, so that no one stays, that there is nothing to defend, that there is no point in defending the city. “They want to scare people, but they won’t succeed.”
Russia has accelerated its destruction of Ukraine’s frontline cities in 2024 to a scale never before seen in war using gliding bombs and an expanding network of landing strips, according to an Associated Press analysis of drone footage, satellite images , Ukrainian documents and Russian photographs. .
The results can be seen in the intensity of the recent Russian attacks. It took a year to Russia will destroy Bakhmut, where bombs were first used. This was followed by destruction in Avdiivka that lasted for months. Then it took only weeks to do the same in Vovchansk and Chasiv Yar, according to images analyzed by the AP that showed the smoldering ruins of both cities.
Now, Russia is putting the finishing touches on another landing strip less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Ukraine and routinely dropping bombs from multiple bases just inside Russian borders, according to AP’s analysis of satellite images and photographs. from a Russian aviation Telegram. channel.
He epicenter bombing 19 people died in Kharkiv, including two children. In total, glider bombs have hit the city more than 50 times this year, according to Spartak Borysenko of the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office.
He showed the AP investigative documents that identified at least eight Russian air bases used to launch the attacks, all within a 100-kilometer (60-mile) radius of Ukraine. He said at least one of the munitions had foreign electronic components and was manufactured in May. That date suggests Russia is using the bombs quickly and has successfully evaded sanctions on dual-use items.
Photos on Russian military-linked Telegram channels show glide bombs being dropped three and four at a time. In a four-bomb drop, the AP tracked the plane’s location just outside the Russian city of Belgorod, near the air base currently under construction. The four bombs pictured 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 each month, with 3,200 used in May alone.
Oleh Katkov, whose military guidance site Defense Express first tracked the launch site, said hitting air bases It is key to slowing the pace of bombing by forcing Russian planes to launch at greater distances.
“This does not mean that they will completely stop their bombing, but it will be more difficult for them,” Katkov said. “They will be able to make fewer departures per day.”
For months, Ukrainian officials complained bitterly about restrictions on the use of Western-supplied weapons against targets in Russia, including airfields hosting Russian bombers. United States and Germany It recently authorized some targets in Russia, but many others remain out of reach.
The AP analysis found that the newest airfield, outside Belgorod, has a 2,000-meter runway. Construction began in late summer 2023, during the failed Ukrainian counteroffensive.
A Ukrainian intelligence official, who provided information to the AP on condition of anonymity, said his government had been closely monitoring construction, which did not yet appear complete in a photograph taken in mid-June.
The official also noted that Belarus offers shelter to Russian bombers. A map created by the Ukrainian battlefield analysis site DeepState showed 10 airfields in Belarus, including five just across the border from Ukraine.
In total, DeepState’s 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 annexed Crimean peninsula and 32 in Russia.
“The greatest strategic advantage that Russia has over Ukraine is its advantage in the skyZelenskyy said last week. “This is terrorism with missiles and bombs that helps Russian troops advance on the ground.”
Russia drops up to 100 guided bombs daily, Zelenskyy said. In addition to missiles and drones, which Russia already regularly uses for its attacks, the bombs cause “incredibly destructive pressure.”
The base material for the glide bombs comes from hundreds of thousands of Soviet-era unguided bombs, which are then retrofitted with retractable fins and guidance systems to carry 500 to 3,000 kilograms (1,100 to 6,600 pounds) of explosives. The upgrade costs about $20,000 per bomb, according to the Center for European Policy Analysis, and the bombs can be dropped up to 65 kilometers (40 miles) from their targets, out of reach of The regular air defense systems of Ukraine..
The bombs are similar in concept to the US Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) missiles, whose GPS systems have been successfully jammed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Because Russia does not have the strength to occupy eastern cities like Kharkiv, Bombing is their preferred option.said Nico Lange, an analyst at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
“From their point of view, the strategy seems to be to terrorize the cities enough that people leave,” Lange said.
Back at the Epicenter home improvement store, surveillance footage taken just before the explosion showed salesperson Nina Korsunova walking across the floor toward the aisle where she was working that day. Then there was a blinding flash and the camera turned off.
Korsunova curled up in a fetal position as a screen crashed on top of her. She uncovered her eyes just in time to see the second bomb inside. With burst eardrums, she couldn’t hear anything and she didn’t see a single sign of life.
“I thought I was alone and that they had abandoned me there. “She gave me the strength to get out,” she said. She crawled over piles of broken lamps and the wires became tangled in her legs as she climbed through the rubble of the electrical supply hallway.
Two weeks later, the skeleton of the building reeked of a disorienting combination of charred metal and laundry detergent spilling from melted jugs in the cleaning supplies aisle.
Neither Korsunova nor the store manager have any plans to leave their hometown.
“It didn’t break me,” he said. “I will stay in Kharkiv. This is my home.”
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Hinnant reported from Paris. Arhirova reported from Kyiv. Associated Press writers Volodymyr Yurchuk, Susie Blann and Samya Kullab in kyiv, and graphic artist Phil Holm in New York contributed to this report.
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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or
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