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Explainer: What are vacuum bombs?
By Danielle Haynes
An RPV-16 thermobaric rocket launcher is seen at a military fair in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2019. Ukrainian officials and
human rights organizations have accused Russia of using so-called vacuum bombs during its invasion of Ukraine.
File Photo by VoidWanderer/Wikimedia
March 1 (UPI) -- Human rights organizations and Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of using so-called vacuum bombs on Ukrainian targets, weapons that are particularly brutal and deadly and could constitute a war crime.
Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova told reporters Monday that Russia used the weapon against a Ukrainian army base in the town of Okhtyrka.
"The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large," she said.
Sumy region administrative chief Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said 70 soldiers died in the blast, according to Politico.
The White House declined to confirm Russia's use of such weapons against Ukraine on Monday.
"I don't have any confirmation of that," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. "We have seen the reports. If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime."
But what exactly are vacuum bombs and what makes them so uniquely deadly?
Vacuum bombs are known by a few names, including thermobaric or aerosol bombs, or fuel air explosive. According to Human Rights Watch, such weapons are more powerful than other explosives of comparable size.
The way in which they detonate and inflict damage and injuries is also "particularly brutal," the organization said.
The bombs comprise a container of fuel and two different explosive charges. The first charge opens the container and disperses the fuel in a cloud, which mixes with the surrounding air.
The cloud of fuel spreads before the second charge detonates, creating a powerful, high-temperature blast wave by way of the fuel cloud.
A 1993 study conducted by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said the effects of a vacuum bomb on humans are "unique and unpleasant."
Those who happen to be near the detonation point of the bomb are "obliterated," according to the CIA in a separate study.
"Those at the fringe are likely to suffer many internal, and thus invisible, injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs and internal organs and possibly blindness," the CIA study said.
Because the shock wave causes minimal brain damage to those who aren't instantaneously killed, victims are often conscious and suffer for a time as they suffocate, the Defense Intelligence Agency said.
BBC News reports there are no international laws specifically banning the use of vacuum bombs, but if Russia is proven to have used them against Ukraine, the country could be tried for war crimes in the International Criminal Court.
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Russia’s space agency chief warns hackers could start war
The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said attempts to target Russian satellites
would lead to serious repercussions
The chief of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, has warned hackers attempting to disrupt the operation of the country’s satellites that their actions could be construed as a “casus belli – that is, an event that justifies a war.”
Dmitry Rogozin’s comment came shortly after a cyberattack on Russia’s RKA Mission Control Center. Speaking to Russia’s Rossiya 24 news channel on Wednesday, the official said that “those who are attempting to do this” should know that “it is a crime, which calls for a very severe punishment.”
Rogozin went on to stress that the disruption of operation of “any country’s space forces is a so-called casus belli,” which is a Latin term used to describe an event that either leads to or justifies the beginning of a war.
The Roscosmos chief also threatened the people responsible that his corporation would identify them, and hand the data over to Russian security services so that they could open a criminal investigation against the hackers.
Earlier, several Telegram groups claimed that the NB65 hacker group, which is allegedly linked to Anonymous, had successfully breached Roscosmos’ communications with Russia’s satellites.
However, Rogozin dismissed the claims, saying that while there were attempts to penetrate the system, Roscosmos’ defense managed to fend them off.
Since February 24, when Moscow started a war against Ukraine, websites of the Kremlin, Russian ministries, banks, and media – including RT – have been targeted by hacker or DDoS attacks. Anonymous declared a “cyber war” on Russia on the day Moscow’s troops and military hardware invaded Ukraine.
Explaining the need for the military action, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was seeking to “demilitarize and denazify” the Eastern European country, as well as to protect from persecution the Russian-speaking population of the Donbass republics. Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed these claims as merely a pretext to invade a sovereign country, alleging that Moscow’s endgame is the installation of a pro-Russian puppet regime in Kiev.
Personally, I think they would be happy with a government that wasn't vociferously anti-Russian or played into the hands of NATO and America's games.
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Neutral Finland, Sweden warm to idea of NATO membership
By JARI TANNER
FILE - Finland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto, left and his Swedish counterpart Ann Linde take part in a joint press conference with Sweden's Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist, and his Finnish counterpart Antti Kaikkonen, in Stockholm, Sweden, Feb. 2, 2022, after talks on European security. Throughout the Cold War and in the decades since it ended, nothing could persuade Finns and Swedes that they would be better off joining NATO, until now. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has profoundly changed Europe’s security outlook, including for Nordic neutrals Finland and Sweden, where support for joining NATO has surged to record levels. (Anders Wiklund, TT News Agency via AP, File)
HELSINKI (AP) — Through the Cold War and the decades since, nothing could persuade Finns and Swedes that they would be better off joining NATO — until now.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has profoundly changed Europe’s security outlook, including for Nordic neutrals Finland and Sweden, where support for joining NATO has surged to record levels.
A poll commissioned by Finnish broadcaster YLE this week showed that, for the first time, more than 50% of Finns support joining the Western military alliance. In neighboring Sweden, a similar poll showed those in favor of NATO membership outnumber those against.
“The unthinkable might start to become thinkable,” tweeted former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, a proponent of NATO membership.
Neither country is going to join the alliance overnight. Support for NATO membership rises and falls, and there’s no clear majority for joining in their parliaments.
But the signs of change since Russia began its invasion last week are unmistakable.
The attack on Ukraine prompted both Finland and Sweden to break with their policy of not providing arms to countries at war by sending assault rifles and anti-tank weapons to Kyiv. For Sweden, it’s the first time it’s offering military aid since 1939, when it assisted Finland against the Soviet Union.
Apparently sensing a shift among its Nordic neighbors, the Russian Foreign Ministry last week voiced concern about what it described as efforts by the United States and some of its allies to “drag” Finland and Sweden into NATO and warned that Moscow would be forced to take retaliatory measures if they joined the alliance.
The governments of Sweden and Finland retorted that they won’t let Moscow dictate their security policy.
“I want to be extremely clear: It is Sweden that itself and independently decides on our security policy line,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said.
Finland has a conflict-ridden history with Russia, with which it shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border. Finns have taken part in dozens of wars against their eastern neighbor, for centuries as part of the Swedish Kingdom, and as an independent nation including two fought with the Soviet Union from 1939-40 and 1941-44.
In the postwar period, however, Finland pursued pragmatic political and economic ties with Moscow, remaining militarily nonaligned and a neutral buffer between East and West.
Sweden has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, choosing a path of peace after centuries of warfare with its neighbors.
Both countries put an end to traditional neutrality by joining the European Union in 1995 and deepening cooperation with NATO. However, a majority of people in both countries remained firmly against full membership in the alliance — until now.
The YLE poll showed 53% were in favor of Finland joining NATO, with only 28% against. The poll had an error margin of 2.5 percentage points and included 1,382 respondents interviewed Feb. 23 to 25. Russia’s invasion began on Feb. 24.
“It’s a very significant shift,” said senior researcher Matti Pesu from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. “We’ve had a situation in the past 25-30 years where Finns’ opinions on NATO have been very stable. It seems to now to have changed completely.”
While noting that it’s not possible to draw conclusions from a single poll, Pesu said no similar shift in public opinion occurred after Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia and the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, “so this is an exception.”
In Sweden, a late February poll commissioned by public broadcaster SVT found 41% of Swedes supported NATO membership and 35% opposed it, marking the first time that those in favor exceeded those against.
The Nordic duo, important partners for NATO in the Baltic Sea area where Russia has substantially increased its military maneuvers in the past decade, has strongly stressed that it is up to them alone to decide whether to join the military alliance.
In his New Year’s speech, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto pointedly said that “Finland’s room to maneuver and freedom of choice also include the possibility of military alignment and of applying for NATO membership, should we ourselves so decide.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg noted last week that for Helsinki and Stockholm “this is a question of self-determination and the sovereign right to choose your own path and then potentially in the future, also to apply for NATO.”
There are no set criteria for joining NATO, but aspiring candidates must meet certain political and other considerations. Many observers believe Finland and Sweden would qualify for fast-track entry into NATO without lengthy negotiations within months.
Though not members, Finland and Sweden closely cooperate with NATO, allowing, among other things, the alliance’s troops to exercise on their soil. Helsinki and Stockholm have also substantially intensified their bilateral defense cooperation in the past years, and both have secured close military cooperation with the U.S., Britain and neighboring NATO member Norway.
Niinisto’s office said Thursday that he would meet U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday “to discuss Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the effects of the war on the European security order, and bilateral cooperation.”
The Finnish head of state is one of the few Western leaders who has kept a regular dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin ever since Niinisto took office in 2012. Niinisto has a seemingly good rapport also with Biden and two leaders have maintained close contact throughout the Ukraine crisis.
In December, Biden called Niinisto and said he was pleased with Finland’s decision to buy 64 Lockheed Martin F-35A stealth fighter jets to replace the country’s aging F-18 fighters. Biden said the move would pave the way for closer U.S.-Finnish military ties in future.
Because that's what it is all about. You buy our war machines and we will love you forever.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said this week that her Social Democratic Party would discuss possible NATO membership with other parties but didn’t set a time frame. She said everyone agrees that the events of the past weeks have been a game-changer.
“Together we see that the security situation has changed remarkably since Russia attacked Ukraine. It is a fact that we have to acknowledge,” Marin said.
___ Associated Press writers Karl Ritter in Stockholm, and Lorne Cook in Brussels, contributed to this report.
It seems our Swedish and Finnish friends have no clue as to why Russia attacked Ukraine. If they understood that it was to keep NATO away from their borders they might think again about the wisdom of joining NATO. It seems to me that it would put the Nordic countries in a much more dangerous situation to flirt with NATO as Ukraine has done.
This must be a very frightening turn of events for Putin as I think he probably expected the opposite to happen. Perhaps he didn't account for the effect of the left-wing media and the NATO-Washington propaganda machines.
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