Russia’s Wagner mercenaries have been recorded firing thermobaric weapons to strike Ukrainian positions in the east of the country where heavy fighting has broken out.
Footage recorded in the Bakhmut area of Donetsk Oblast showed the TOS-1A Multiple Launch Rocket Systems hitting their targets.
The footage from Russian media site RIA shared the video alongside the caption: “Wagner Group fighters use Solntepek heavy flamethrower systems to hit Ukrainian forces in Artemivsk and its suburbs, RIA Novosti reports.”
Someone replied to the video saying: "To be on the wrong side of TOS would have to be a terrifying experience. Ruptured lungs and GI tract have gotta be a terrible way to go."
Since losing Kherson city, Russia has moved the battle eastwards and locals in the Luhansk region have been reporting heavy fire close by.
Ukraine and NATO countries accused Russia earlier in the war of using thermobaric bombs, which are also known as vacuum bombs and have much more brutal consequences than conventional explosives.
A CIA report said thermobaric bombs can cause "many internal, thus invisible injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs and internal organs, and possibly blindness”.
The pressure wave from the explosive destroys delicate air sacs or can cause an embolism, as the wide area of the ignited particles makes people 'suck in' oxygen in the first stage of the blast.
Dr Marcus Hellyer, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the thermobaric weapons were effective at their "specific purpose" of "primarily destroying defensive positions".
Speaking to the Guardian, he added: "They are not illegal even though their effects can be pretty horrific, because of that effect of creating a vacuum and sucking the air out of the lungs of defenders".
Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, said in a Telegram on Tuesday: "On November 15, one civilian was killed in Donetsk region – in Bakhmut.
"Seven more people in the region were injured. In addition, law enforcers discovered three bodies of civilians killed by Russians during the occupation – two in Sviatohirsk and one in Shchurove."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Donetsk is hell.
"There it is just hell — there are extremely fierce battles there every day. But our units are defending bravely — they are withstanding the terrible pressure of the invaders, preserving our defence lines," he said.
