Russia began to systematically use guided aerial bombs for attacks on Ukraine from 2023. It hits civilians and infrastructure with them. Since March 2024, the Truth Hounds team has documented more than 950 cases of aerial bombings that have resulted in the destruction of residential buildings, hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure. As a result, more than 250 people died and 1 300 were injured. The real number of crimes involving the use of guided aerial bombs by Russia is significantly higher.
Babel recounts the Truth Hounds investigation, which analyzed the strikes with the use of guided aerial bombs on the cities and villages of Ukraine and showed the scale and intensity of these attacks.
Russian tactical aviation and war
For strikes on distant targets, the Russian aviation uses Su-34 and Su-35 fighters, armed with medium-range guided air missiles (X-59) and guided air bombs. Most of the strikes are carried out by Su-34 aircraft, for example, with unified interspecies planing munitions (UIPM) and bombs equipped with a universal planning and correction module (UPCM).
In February 2022, the total number of Su-34s in service with all units of the Russian Federation is approximately 124 aircraft. By the end of September 2024, Russia has lost at least 33 Su-34 aircraft.
As of May-June 2024, the total number of Su-34s used by Russia against Ukraine was at least 68 aircraft. In the period from August to the end of September, the situation did not change.
Truth Hounds
Bombs that Russia drops on Ukraine
As of mid-2024, Russian aviation has three main means of bombing Ukraine:
- bombs from UIPM (250 kg, 500 kg, 1500 kg, 3000 kg);
- ammunition UPCM D-30SN (250 kg);
- ammunition "Grom-E" (from 315 kg to 480 kg depending on the modification).
Briefly about each of them — on the infographic.
Truth Hounds
And in the video below you can see how Russian planes drop aerial bombs from UPCM.
Since the beginning of 2024, Russia has significantly increased the production of UPCM, so it can use hundreds of such aerial bombs every day. At the same time, the Russian Federation retains a large stockpile of conventional bombs from the Soviet era, a basis for relatively inexpensive modernization that has expanded their use in the war against Ukraine.
When and where the bombs fall
As of September 2024, the Russian army used an average of up to 100 guided aerial bombs every day. There is a tendency — after each Ukrainian attack on airfields where Su-34 aircraft are based, the number of guided air bombs released over Ukraine decreases. However, this effect is short-term, lasting from a few days to a week between intense attacks.
Truth Hounds
Russia drops aerial bombs on both military and civilian targets. It attacked civilians 951 times from the beginning of March to the end of September 2024 (this figure is documented). During the studied period, large cities with thousands of inhabitants, such as Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Kherson, were constantly hit by aerial bombs.
Truth Hounds
"According to the norms of international humanitarian law, such actions using imprecise weapons and their high intensity indicate a clear intention to sow fear and panic among the civilian population, undermine the morale of Ukrainians and create an atmosphere of constant threat, which collectively defines terror," the report emphasizes.
Kharkiv
Kharkiv is the only city of a million people that suffers from constant attacks by guided aerial bombs. The investigators analyzed four attacks on Kharkiv that occurred on March 27, May 14 and 25, and June 24, 2024. These alone resulted in the deaths of at least 23 people and the wounding of at least 154. None of the attacks involved hitting an object that could be recognized as a legitimate target or within the round-error radius of the munition.
At least five aviation units of the Russian Federation may be involved in the bombing of Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region — three of them operate on Su-34s and two on Su-35s.
Kherson
Truth Hounds investigators analyzed two attacks on Kherson — March 8 (a child was injured) and May 15 (at least 19 people were injured) in 2024. In the first and second cases, there was no legitimate target within a radius of 250 meters from the point of impact. The hits were on civilian objects.
Three Su-34 units stationed at these airfields could attack Kherson:
- "Morozovsk" — 559th and 277th bomber regiments;
- "Marinovka" — 559th and unknown regiment, probably 277th or 2nd;
- "Kushchevska" — the 277th bomber and possibly the 968th mixed regiment.
International law and war crimes
International humanitarian law (IHL) governs the conduct of any armed conflict or war. The investigation emphasizes that the analyzed cases of the use of guided aerial bombs in Kharkiv and Kherson "provide strong grounds to believe that these attacks violate the provisions of IHL and can be characterized as war crimes."
"Thus, by using guided aerial bombs in Ukraine, the armed forces of the Russian Federation repeatedly violated the norms of international humanitarian law. The low accuracy of weapons, their use in densely populated areas during the day, the absence of visible military targets in the places of hits indicate indiscriminate attacks and the deliberate targeting of attacks on the civilian population. Such actions can be qualified as war crimes," Truth Hounds summarized.
- From the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 to August 31, 2024, Russia launched 36 twin strikes against Ukraine, and Russian propaganda actively justifies and even encourages such strikes against civilian targets in Ukraine, according to previous investigations by Truth Hounds.
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