On September 19, 2024, a Thursday, russia attacked a nursing home for the elderly with a guided aerial bomb (also called a glide bomb) in Sumy, in the northwest corner of Ukraine. The residents of this facility were not able-bodied older people but patients requiring constant medical care, which they received from a staff of around 60. Some of these people were independently mobile, but quite a few were in wheelchairs or other mobility devices.
There really is no way russia could have mistaken the building for a military target. As you can see from the photo, it looks exactly like what it is: a residential and medical facility. The guided bomb damaged the roof, the top levels of the building, the doors, and shattered windows. Miraculously, the State Emergency Service successfully evacuated 147 people, there was one fatality, and only 13 people were injured.
Exactly what is a guided aerial bomb? One answer, sadly, is that it is the go-to weapon when russia wants to destroy part of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including electricity generation facilities. Keep in mind that each such attack is a war crime, since obviously it is forbidden to target civilian infrastructure.
It seems that russia didn’t have much luck on the battlefield, back in 2022-2023, the long-ago days when partner countries at least delivered artillery shells more or less on time. So, since Fall of 2023, russia has continually pounded Ukrainian cities, specializing in hitting residential buildings, educational and medical facilities, electricity generation infrastructure, churches, historical sites, and museums.
This city pounding has been done with a variety of weapons: artillery, missiles, and kamikaze drones. Lately, though, russia has preferred guided aerial bombs, also called glide bombs or smart bombs. An article from the United24 Media web site explained it this way: “An un-guided aerial bomb is also known as a ‘dumb bomb,’ and a guided bomb is known as a ‘smart bomb.’ A glide bomb is a ‘smart bomb’ [since] it is guided by satellite navigation. It has wings attached to it that can be [configured] in response to commands, making the bomb glide [precisely] to its target—rather than fall like ‘dumb bombs,’ which are dropped to fall [more or less] on [the] target.”
The purpose of targeting civilian buildings? Certainly nothing related to military gain! russia is in the habit of using this cruel and illegal tactic. It’s called “shock and awe”, and the idea seems to be to shock and terrorize the civilian population so that they will beg to surrender. But any shock value was gone after the first 100 or so guided aerial bombs (russia launched 900 of them just in the week ending in 9-22-24.), and Ukrainians are not about to surrender their homeland. Surely putin realizes that by now! Yet the glide bombs keep coming. So I’ve concluded that russia simply derives satisfaction from destroying Ukrainian homes, cities, cultural heritage, and people.
Guided bombs have many advantages for a predatory outfit like the russian army. They are lots cheaper than ballistic and cruise missiles. They carry an extra strong load of explosives, so they do a lot more damage than you’d expect from their size. Best of all, the bombs can be released over russian territory (making it difficult to hit the aircraft doing the releasing), before traveling a considerable distance more to their targets.
Ukraine now has a limited number of long-range missiles, and would very much like to take out the airfields, deep inside russia, from which the glide bomb-launching jets take off. But some partners, notably the U.S., will not give Ukraine permission to strike targets deep in russia. Until that restriction is removed, expect more terrible attacks like the one on a nursing home that I describe in this post.
Postscript: Before I could get this posted, there was another glide bomb attack (9-21-24), this one on a residential building in Kharkiv. The standard apartment building is a 12-story massive thing, and it can’t seem to jump out of the way, so it’s a favorite target. And russian terror is a daily trauma: President Zelenskyy noted in his evening address of 9-29-24 that russia launches, on the average, 100 of these deadly bombs on Ukraine every day. The next day, 9-22-24, eighteen big residential buildings were damaged by a single FAB-250 bomb similar to the photo, and one building actually had its structure displaced.
These residential buildings from the soviet era are very sturdy. They were built in groups as residential parks, making it easier to damage multiple buildings with a single bomb. 21 people were injured, including several children, and 60 people were evacuated. No fatalities, but imagine trying to go about your daily life with the constant threat of a guided bomb destroying your home and all your possessions, even irreplaceable things such as the kids’ crayon drawings fastened with magnets onto the door to the fridge.
Photo Credits
1. People being evacuated. by SUMY OBLAST MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. This photo appeared 9-19-24 in a Ukrainska Pravda article, Search and rescue operation completed in Sumy after Russian attack on retirement home – photos, by Tetyana Oliynyk.
2. Damaged nursing home. by SUMY OBLAST MILITARY ADMINISTRATION This photo appeared 9-19-24 in a Ukrainska Pravda article, Search and rescue operation completed in Sumy after Russian attack on retirement home – photos, by Tetyana Oliynyk.
3. KAB-250 bomb disposal. March 2024 Attribution: Dsns.gov.ua (https://dsns.gov.ua) (CC BY 4.0 International) State Emergency Service of Ukraine removes an unexploded Russian guided air-dropped bomb KAB-250, which fell on the territory of a private house in Toretsk city of Donetsk Oblast of Ukraine, via Wikimedia Commons.
4.Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa after Russian missile attack. July 23, 2023 by Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (mvs.gov.ua). (CC BY-SA 4.0 International) The attack included 5 types of missiles: Kalibr, Onyx, Kh-22, Iskander-K, Iskander-M. The one that hit the cathedral came through the ceiling and hit the alter on a Sunday morning. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
5. FAB-500 bomb in Zaporizhzhia. July 2022 Attribution: Dsns.gov.ua (https://dsns.gov.ua) (CC BY 4.0 International) State Emergency Service of Ukraine removes an unexploded guided air-dropped bomb FAB-500 found in Zaporizhzhia Raion, via Wikimedia Commons.
6. UPAB-1500B-E bomb displayed in airshow. July 2021 by Kirill Borisenko (CC BY-SA 4.0 International) Guided gliding bomb UPAB-1500B-E in “MAKS-2021” airshow, via Wikimedia Commons.
7. Storm Shadow British long range missile. May 2006 by Corrado Baldassi (CC BY-SA 3.0) Description: Storm Shadow – Royal Air Force – Standoff Missile – display at RAF Museum Hendon – London (UK). Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
8. FAB-250-M62 bomb in a museum. April 2014 by Апатинаити (CC BY-SA 4.0 International) Soviet aircraft bomb FAB-250-M62 . Aviation Museum in Kyiv, via Wikimedia Commons.
9. Damaged residential building. Source: Oleh Syniehubov / Telegram This photo appeared 9-22-24 in a Kyiv Independent article, Russian strike on apartment building in Kharkiv injures 21, including children, by Olena Goncharova and The Kyiv Independent news desk.
Reference Articles
18 apartment buildings damaged in Russian night attack on Kharkiv by Roman Petrenko (September 22, 2024) Ukrainska Pravda article. Here is the URL of this article: https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/ 2024/09/22/7476250/
FAB Glide Bombs, One of Russia’s Main Tools Of Aggression by Jess Daly (July 10, 2024) An article from the United24.com website with lots of information, including a lot of technical information on each bomb type. This is the article from which I quoted in the post. Here is the URL of this article:
https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/fab-glide-bombs-one-of-russias-main-tools-of-aggression-1157
Russia has launched 900 guided bombs and 400 Shahed UAVs on Ukraine over past week – video by Roman Petrenko (September 22, 2024) Ukrainska Pravda article. Here is the URL of this article: https:// www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/09/22/7476231/
Russian strike on apartment building in Kharkiv injures 21, including children by Olena Goncharova and The Kyiv Independent news desk (September 22, 2024) The Kyiv Independent article. Here is the URL of this article: https://kyivindependent.com/russian-strike-on-apartment-building-in-kharkiv-injures-at-least-12/
Russians struck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure over 1,000 times since October 2022 by Volodymyr Tunik-Fryz (September 22, 2024) Ukrainska Pravda article. Here is the URL of this article: https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/09/22/7476259/
Search and rescue operation completed in Sumy after Russian attack on retirement home – photos by Tetyana Oliynyk (September 19, 2024) Ukrainska Pravda article. Here is the URL of this article: https:// www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/09/19/7475922/