Russia says ‘vacuum bomb’ airstrike kills hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers, but Kiev denies

(CNN) — Russia says it killed large numbers of Ukrainian soldiers with so-called “vacuum bombs”, a claim Ukraine immediately dismissed as absurd.

The deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces informed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a meeting that more than 300 Ukrainian servicemen were killed “as a result of a precision strike with aerial ammunition,” the Defense Ministry said. this Saturday.

Ukrainian defense intelligence spokesman Andrey Yusov told CNN that the claims were “complete nonsense and propaganda, as well as Russian information about the deaths of 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers yesterday in the Kursk and Belgorod regions.”

CNN cannot independently verify those figures.

According to the ministry, Colonel General Alexey Kim, referring to a special unit of Ukraine’s defense intelligence, did not say where the attack took place, but described the location as “the deployment point of the nationalist ‘Kraken’ formation.”

According to RIA Novosti, Kim said that a “volumetric detonation bomb” was used in the airstrike.

Volumetric weapons are also known as vacuum bombs, thermobaric weapons or fuel-air explosives.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference at the Ukraine Year 2024 Forum in Kiev on February 25. (Credit: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images)

According to the Lieber Institute of Law and War in the United States Military, the destruction caused by a thermobaric weapon is due to the shock wave it produces and the vacuum created by the fuel-air mixture which draws oxygen to sustain the explosion. . Academy. United in West Point, New York.

The power of such an explosion is enough to collapse buildings and break limbs. According to the Centers for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, walls or caves do not provide protection.

Details of the Russian airstrike emerged during a meeting at the Joint Forces Group headquarters, where Shoigu heard reports from commanders about the current situation in the “zone of special military operations,” the ministry said, the phrase Russia used to refer to its war. Does to Ukraine.

Kim also did not say when the attack was carried out, but noted that “during the past week, as a result of the effective work of reconnaissance and attack systems, three American Patriot complexes, a Vampire multiple rocket launcher, more than 10 missiles of foreign manufacture , artillery systems and fuel and ammunition depots were destroyed.

Kim also told Shoigu during the meeting that Ukraine was suffering “significant losses in both equipment and manpower as a result of the use of high-precision weapons and attack drones,” the ministry said.

This story was updated with additional details.