Is the Russian offensive in Ukraine getting tougher? US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Wednesday accused Russia of wanting to use weapons banned by the Geneva Conventions. She mentioned in particular the thermobaric bombs with devastating potential.
What is a thermobaric bomb?
It is a conventional explosive weapon that combines thermal, shock waves and depressive effects. Also known as the “vacuum bomb” or “oxygen suppression bomb”, it is the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the world. Because the explosion of his missiles produces a shock wave that lasts significantly longer than that of a conventional explosive. It is able to evaporate human bodies.
When it explodes, it disperses a cloud of fuel that ignites on contact with the surrounding air, causing a second explosion at high temperatures. This imperfect technology corresponds to a fairly simple principle of physics. “The first explosion created a fireball that absorbed oxygen, so there was a brief moment of complete oxygen starvation. And it is this vacuum that significantly increases the effect of the explosion, hence the name vacuum weapon, “said Mark Finaud, an expert on arms proliferation at the Geneva Center for Security Policy.
“Targets die from suffocation or burns,” said General Dominique Trinkand, a former head of the French delegation’s military mission to the United Nations. “It is used when the tusks are buried and normal explosive bombs do not reach them. »
In the past, the United States has used these weapons in Afghanistan and Vietnam to pull resistance fighters out of tunnels and shelters or to clear areas to land its helicopters. The Americans also call it MOAB, Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb. Acronym, deviated from “Mother of all bombs” (mother of all bombs).
Russia has also reportedly used them in Afghanistan and Chechnya, said Patrick Wilken, a weapons control researcher at Amnesty International. France, according to the experts we interviewed, does not have one.
What is the basis of the UN accusation?
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, has accused Russia of using these thermobaric munitions in her country at least once. On Wednesday, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the same accusations before the UN Assembly.
So far, the use of such weapons by the Russians has not been proven or independently confirmed. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she had seen reports but no confirmation. “If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime,” she said cautiously during a press briefing.
On social media, a video broadcast by a Le Monde correspondent in Moscow showed a huge explosion at Chuguev Airport near Kharkov. If some Internet users broadcast the video claiming to be a thermobaric bomb, it proves nothing. It could also be an explosion in an ammunition depot, causing this spectacular “mushroom”. The Russians are talking about a “classic” bomb.
The word about restraint in the use of bombing has been forgotten.
Video broadcast by the Base, which was never caught by counterfeits and found at Chuguev Airport, near Kharkov. pic.twitter.com/1XnD5GyOQ1– Benoit Vitkin (@benvtk) March 1, 2022
However, several observers, including a team of CNN reporters, noticed TOS-1A (thermobaric weapon code name) missile systems, as seen in the videos below.
How is its use regulated?
International law does not prohibit it. Unlike the nuclear bomb, the thermobar bomb “has no perverse long-term, bacteriological or chemical effect,” said Jean-Vincent Brisset, a researcher at IRIS (Institute for International and Strategic Relations). “White phosphorus shells thrown by the Israeli army at the Palestinians are much more disgusting, for example,” he said.
However, the Geneva Conventions regulate its use. International humanitarian law prohibits the use of weapons that strike indiscriminately, that is, without being able to aim at a military target with precision, recalls Amnesty International. “Given the long-range effects and inaccuracies of the TOS-1A, this weapon should never be used in populated areas,” said Patrick Wilken. Any such attack using TOS-1A would be indiscriminate and therefore prohibited by the IHL and could be a war crime. »
That is why Karim Khan, a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, has announced that he is launching an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed on Ukrainian territory since 2014, when the war in Donbass began.