Vacuum bomb Ukraine

Vacuum bombs, or thermobaric weapons, work in two stages.

Correction: this article originally referred to the alleged use of a thermobaric weapon by the US in the 1991 Gulf war. This wouldn’t be the first time Russia has employed these devices. The explosion lasts longer and happens at a much higher temperature. As Russia’s horrifying invasion of Ukraine continues to unfold, Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, has alleged that Russia used a vacuum bomb. The effects of thermobaric weapons are much more intense and destructive than a more conventional bomb. Besides suffocation, the pressure from the explosion can essentially crush a person to death and cause major internal damage to the body’s organs, such as rupturing the lungs.

A new, destructiveweapon might be in use during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine — vacuum bombs. On Feb. 28, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States told reporters that Russia was now attacking Ukraine with the weapons.

The “prolonged outwards pressure wave” that follows the initial explosion of the bomb is highly dangerous and causes extensive internal injuries, “leaving victims dead with no signs of external damage,” the outlet reported. “We are not putting down arms,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, Feb. 26. A new, destructiveweapon might be in use during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine — vacuum bombs. “We will be defending our country, because our weapon is truth, and our truth is that this is our land, our country, our children, and we will defend all of this.” “The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large but Ukrainians will resist. Ambassador Oksana Markarova said on the fifth day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that Russia “used a vacuum bomb today, which is actually prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.”

Accusations that Russia may be using thermobaric weapons, also knows as vacuum bombs, in Ukraine have raised fears about the potential devastation.

The use of such weapons against civilians, however, is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions and could constitute war crimes. These types of thermobaric weapons have been in development since the 1970s. The type of thermobaric weapon that has been spotted with Russian convoys inside Ukraine is known as the TOS-1A multiple rocket launcher. Markarova did not provide additional details and NBC News has not independently verified that the weapon has been used in Ukraine, but Russian thermobaric rocket launchers have been photographed entering the country by a CNN team. Johnson said thermobaric munitions are sometimes known as “a poor man’s nuclear weapon,” because they can obliterate any humans in the vicinity. A second charge then ignites the aerosol fog, creating a huge blast, flames, a large pressure wave and a vacuum as oxygen from the surrounding air is sucked up.