HISTORY

Old Russian FAB-3000 bombs prepared for use by Tu-22M3 aircraft in the raid on Mariupol.

directly in the city. On Friday April 1 early

morning the fuel storage exploded and the

security cameras’ footage shows that it

was targeted by unguided missiles launched from two helicopters. One video clearly

shows the Mi-24 silhouette leaving after

the attack.

And now it has become interesting. At the

first glance it was undoubtedly a brave

attack at very low altitude and deep in the

enemy territory. The Ukrainians had the reason to take credit for it. Instead, several

Ukrainian representatives refused to confirm or deny if the attack was conducted by

the Ukrainian air forces. Some representatives even categorically rejected it. Kremlin

speaker, Dmiti Peskov stated that the incident can impair the peace talks between

Russia and Ukraine. By the way he made

the statement after a week-long Russian

attacks on the fuel storages throughout

Ukraine… Truth is since then the peace talks

have not progressed in two weeks.

Next attack, which Russians attribute to

Ukrainians, took place on Thursday April

14 in the village of Klimovo in Bryansk region very close to the border with Ukraine.

“Utilizing two combat helicopters armed

with heavy offensive weapons the military

personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces

illegally crossed the Russian border” sta-

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INFO Eduard

ted the Russian side who has been illegally

crossing Ukrainian border for a month and

half… According to this official statement

the helicopters flying at very low altitude

conducted at least six attacks on the village

of Klimovo, damaging six civilian houses

and wounding seven people. Ukraine categorically rejected participation in such an

attack. There were sabotages on the railways on the Russian territory and the Belorussian partisans claimed responsibility

for them.

These incidents together with the sinking of

the cruiser Moskva led to the reinstating of

the massive Russian attacks in the western

part of Ukraine. After a relative lull the Russian missiles, during Easter holidays, targeted Kiev and Lvov. Needless to say, Kharkov has been bombarded non-stop.

The Russians don’t use only rockets to

attack. On Saturday April 16 the Tu-22M3

bombers were deployed over Ukraine for

the first time. They operated in relative safety behind the front lines. They were used

to bomb Mariupol where the defenders, after more than 50 day siege, were pushed

to the steelworks area. It was not immediately apparent what ordnance the bombers carried during this attack but couple

of days earlier the Russians threatened to

use three ton bombs FAB-3000. These were

developed right after WWII precisely for

this purpose-destroying the large industrial areas. Their age and decades of storage

could however have caused the problems.

At the time this article was going to print

the large Russian offensive in Donbas started so the end of war was not on the horizon.

Sources:

www.oryxspioenkop.com (1 2 3)

www.facebook.com (1 2 3 4)

www.bbc.com

May 2022