It’s published
•update
Russia attacked a shopping centre in the eastern Ukrainian town of Dubropyria, attacking it with a 500 kg fab-type air bomb, killing at least four people and injuring 27 people, regional authorities reported Thursday.
54 retail stores, 304 apartments and eight vehicles were struck, and the fire broke out after the attack, the head of the Donetsk Regional Military Regiment said.
Ukrainian President Voldymi Zelensky described the strike as “simply terrifying” and described it as “no military logic.”
“This is a scary, stupid Russian horror. It’s simply an attempt to kill as many as possible. Russia is about such a mean strike.”
Dubropylia is a town located west of the Donetsk region, about 15 km from the front line. The Russian army is about to advance towards it from the southeast.
Glide Aerial Bombs are basic, often primitive, dropped bombs that modify their wings and frequently equipped with satellite navigation systems, allowing them to be fired from afar rather than directly on the target.
FAB – the acronym for “high explosive aerial bomb” in Russian – is one of the most widely used bombs since the Soviet era, and is actively employed by Russia in an all-out war with Ukraine.
These air bombs pose a serious threat to Ukrainian infrastructure and frontline cities. They are used in strikes against Ukrainian military status, logistics hubs, bridges and industrial facilities as they are most effective against static targets.
According to Ukraine’s UN Human Rights Surveillance Mission, Russian gliding bombs killed 360 people and injured 1,861 Ukrainian civilians in 2024, a triple increase in deaths and six times more injuries compared to 2023.
The Russian army employs glide bombs of various sizes, weighing 250, 500, or 1,000 kilograms. The most powerful Russian arsenal is the FAB-3000, a three-tone, high-explosive bomb that the Russian Ministry of Defense claims to have entered into mass production.
Glide bombs are extremely destructive and very difficult to shoot down. Unlike missiles, there is no propulsion system, so it does not generate much heat and is therefore mostly immune to intercepting by infrared missiles.
