Since the beginning of the year, Russia has dropped a record number of aerial bombs on Ukraine

In less than three months of 2024, Russian troops dropped more than 3,500 aerial bombs on Ukrainian army positions. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Ivan Gavrilyuk. He noted that this is 16 times more than for the whole of 2023.

At the same time, according to him, Russia’s advantage in the intensity of artillery fire along the entire front line is 7:1. The critical shortage of ammunition in the Ukrainian army and the dominance of Russian aviation in the skies were the main reasons for the current situation at the front.

Gavrilyuk noted that the “long-awaited” F-16 fighters promised to Ukraine by Western allies could turn the tide in the skies and, as a result, allow Ukrainian ground forces to improve their position.

Earlier, Western media wrote about the new tactics of Russian troops. It consists of a more intensive and risky use of front-line bomber aircraft, which drop powerful cluster and high-explosive bombs on Ukrainian positions. As a rule, these bombs are equipped with special modules (UMPK), which transform them from free-falling to gliding and adjustable.

These modules allow Russian aircraft to drop bombs at a relative distance from the front line, which increases the safety of such sorties. Nevertheless, the sharp increase in the intensity of the use of front-line bombers has already led to a significant increase in losses of Russian aviation.

According to Gavrilyuk, in the last month alone, Ukrainian air defense forces managed to shoot down 12 Russian fighter-bombers. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not comment on this information.

However, despite significant losses in the air, the new tactics allowed the Russian army to achieve significant successes on the ground. Thus, according to analysts, the massive use of FAB-500 and KAB-500 aerial bombs became the key to the success of the Russian military during the assault on Avdeevka.

This city was the largest fortified area of ​​the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Donetsk region. After months of bloody assault, the Russian army was able to take it in mid-February. According to the Ukrainian military defending the city, Russian planes dropped hundreds of bombs on their positions during the assault.

In March, reports appeared about the beginning of the use of FAB-1500 heavy-duty aerial bombs by the Russian army at the front. These munitions carry an explosive charge weighing about one and a half tons and, according to this indicator, are three times more powerful than the FAB-500, which have been mainly used so far.

As the American television channel CNN wrote, citing military experts, the use of these heavy-duty aerial bombs could allow the Russian army to seriously change the front line. In turn, the Ukrainian military said that FAB-1500s are capable of turning almost any even fortified building into ruins, while the surviving defenders will almost certainly be shell-shocked after the arrival of such ammunition.

To receive the main news faster, subscribe to our telegram and Twitter .