As brave Ukrainians counter Vladimir Putin’s attempt to take control of Kyiv, Western officials have warned that he could resort to high-power thermobaric weapons, dubbed as the 'father of all bombs'.
They have suggested Russia will kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his ministers if they seize Kyiv. While Russian special forces have reached the suburbs of Kyiv, the bulk of Russia's heavy armour is believed to be still more than 50km away from the capital.
The Tos-1 Buratino weapons are understood to have crossed into Ukraine, although they have yet to be used. Moscow has previously employed them in Chechnya and Syria.
Also known as vacuum bombs, Thermobaric weapons are high-powered explosive that use the atmosphere itself as part of the explosion. They are among the most powerful non-nuclear weapons ever developed.
In 2017, the US dropped a thermobaric bomb which weighed 21,600 pounds on the Taliban in Afghanistan. It left a crater more than 300 metres wide after it exploded six feet above the ground.
Thermobaric weapons were developed by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the 1960s. The bomb works by using oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, making it far deadlier than a conventional weapon.
