An exploding cauliflower-looking fireball on the sky in Ukraine is not necessarily an ordinary bomb. Down on the ground, air could be suddenly vacuumed out, causing even greater explosion with blast waves simmering in the airless environs for long. People running away pell-mell would fall down like nine pins or get vapourised—imagine vaporized!
This is exactly what the world has been complaining Russian doing in Ukraine since the war started and perhaps the Russian forces veritably doing it out there—vapourize humans! Now UK has raised the pitch of accusation saying that Russian Ministry of Defence admitted to having used TOS-IA weapon system in Ukraine. TOS-1A uses thermobaric rockets or vaccum bombs for creating incendiary blast effects.
Earlier, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, accused Moscow had of using a thermobaric weapon. "They used the vacuum bomb today. The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large," the ambassador had said.
A vacuum bomb sucks in oxygen from where it is dropped generating a high-temperature explosion. This could subsequently create a blast wave of a significantly longer duration.
Also known as an aerosol bomb, the bomb is capable of a two-stage munition with the first charge distributing aerosols made up of very fine material from a carbon-based fuel to tiny metal particles, one report said. The second charge blast ignites cloud creating a shock wave, which sucks up the oxygen making a vacuum around its target.
Amnesty international confirms global humanitarian laws' ban on the use of inherently indiscriminate weapons like cluster munitions— and causing indiscriminate attacks killing or injuring civilians is a war crime.
Dr Marcus Hellyer, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told The Guardian that while vacuum bombs will not be used to penetrate a tank, they could be a very destructive weapon against an apartment complex or other building, according to a report in India Today.