Ukraine blasted by flesh-eating rain bombs

Shock video has shown flesh-melting thermite rain bombs on a Ukraine town in the deadliest day of the war, with 1000 Russian troops killed. Warning: Graphic

Terrifying flesh-melting thermite rain fell over a Ukrainian town amid bloody fighting across the frontline as Russia continues to use brutal tactics in Ukraine’s east – but yesterday Vladimir Putin’s forces endured their deadliest day, losing more than 1000 men in 24 hours.

According to The Sun, Ukraine claimed the lives of 1090 Russian soldiers on Saturday, local time – 60 more than the previous record reportedly set on February 7.

Putin also lost eight tanks, seven armoured vehicles, four artillery guns and four air defence systems.

Flesh-melting bombs have rained down on a Ukraine town.

A Ukrainian serviceman looks on as he drives a BMP-2 tank while moving towards the city of Bakhmut. Picture: Aris Messinis / AFP

The war is grinding on in Ukraine’s east, with much of the fighting centred around the nine-month long battle raging in Bakhmut.

Kyiv is holding the line as they fear caving into the Russians will open the road up to the rest of Ukraine.

And they desperately buying time to mount a counter offensive to try and throw Putin’s forces even further back.

Footage however showed the horrifying showers of so-called “thermite rain” falling over the town on Vuhledar.

#Ukraine 🇺🇦: Ukrainian sources report that the Russians have been using incendiary munition on the town of #Vuhledar. pic.twitter.com/PJJLjpkcxn

— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) March 11, 2023

Russia used the flesh-melting munitions in an attempt to break the deadlock.

Thermite, a mixture of metal powder and metal oxide is used in the making of incendiary bombs.

It burns at temperatures of more than 2400C and is able to burn through steel and concrete.

If it comes into contact with human flesh it can melt through to the bone.

Other footage circulating on Twitter showed brutal tank battles in Vuhledar, a key mining town on a hill that is around 100km north of Bakhmut.

The town has been out even as the Russians throw wave-after-wave of troops and tanks at the Ukraine defence.

I could watch conscripts forcibly ejected off vehicles all day.

Pure chaos in Vuhledar. pic.twitter.com/RTi1lUFzUc

— Havoc Six (@Havoc_Six) March 2, 2023

Oleksandr Syrsky, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, has vowed to keep holding the line as they need to “buy time”.

“The real heroes now are the defenders who are holding the eastern front on their shoulders, and inflicting the heaviest possible losses, sparing neither themselves nor the enemy,” he said in a statement on Saturday, local time.

“It is necessary to buy time to build reserves and launch a counteroffensive, which is not far off.”

Satellite images show the horrific devastation in Bakhmut – a city once home to 70,000 people.

Satellite images show the scale of destruction in Bakhmut as Ukrainian troops fought against the attempted encirclement of the city by Russian forces https://t.co/YMl1fxhmgLpic.twitter.com/aoor8GffNF

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 11, 2023

Chilling before and after pictures of the area show the green landscape turned into a grey wasteland.

The fighting has been brutal with an estimated 30,000 Russians dying in Bakhmut.

Soldiers are reportedly fighting street-by-street and hand-to-hand among the ruined hellscape.

Russians are reported to be using shovels as weapons as they find themselves running out of bullets.

Putin’s mercenary war lord Yevgeny Prigozhin – chief of the Wagner Group – has called the city a “killing zone”.

“Ukrainian forces hold the west of the town and have demolished key bridges over the river, which runs north-south through a strip of open ground 200m-800m wide,” the British defence ministry said.

“This area has become a killing zone, likely making it highly challenging for Wagner forces attempting to continue their frontal assault westwards.”

Prigozhin in Bakhmut with his Wagner PMC fighters gives us a tour and tells us how many shells the Wagners need for successful operations. This is 10,000 tons per month. https://t.co/7kkHjOZfgppic.twitter.com/QQjXG9qNay

— Victor vicktop55 (@vicktop55) March 11, 2023

The Wagner Group are spearheading the attack for Russia in Bakhmut, which is nevertheless providing heroic resistance.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said Wagner forces have seized most of eastern Bakhmut but that any further Russian advance in the devastated town would be “highly challenging”.

Wagner chief Prigozhin in a video released on Saturday complained about lack of munitions, but said that his forces were close to the administrative centre of the city.

Both sides, however, have suffered heavy losses.

The Ukrainian defence ministry on Saturday reported that its forces had repelled “more than 100 enemy attacks” over the last day along the eastern front.

Prigozhin has several times claimed battlefield victories ahead of Russia’s army, criticised the country’s top brass and accused the military of not sharing ammunition with Wagner forces.

A Ukrainian firefighter works to put out fire in a shopping mall following a Russian shelling in Kherson. Picture: AFP

MORE SHELLING, DEATHS IN KHERSON

Since Russia’s retreat from the city of Kherson late last year, it has been regularly pounded by Moscow’s troops.

The Russian army has kept shelling the southern city, killing three people and wounding another two, Ukrainian officials said Saturday.

“Russian terrorists are shelling Kherson again,” said Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, posting a picture of firefighters next to a charred car.

Galyna Kolisnyk, 53, said the Russians struck when she was in a store. “When we entered, literally five minutes later this tragedy happened,” she told AFP.

“Explosions began, our car got hit,” she said. “This is horrible.” Kherson is the capital of one of the four regions – along with Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia – that Russia claims to have annexed but does not fully control.

Donetsk’s separatist mayor Alexei Kulemzin said Saturday that Ukrainian shelling had killed two people including a young boy.

– With AFP

Originally published as Ukraine blasted by flesh-eating rain bombs