DEATH FROM ABOVE
Fears Putin will deploy Russia’s terrifying thermobaric rocket launchers that can ‘explode’ enemy’s lungs in Ukraine
VLADIMIR Putin may deploy some of the world's most devastating weapons in his full-scale assault on Ukraine, experts have claimed.
Russia's terrifying arsenal of thermobaric weapons launches a barrage of fuel-air explosive warheads so powerful they can "melt" an opposing army.
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The TOS-1 "Buratino" and TOS-1A "Solntsepek" are some of the deadliest weapons on the modern battlefield, save for nuclear warheads.
Sources in Ukraine have shared videos of convoys of TOSs heading for the border.
The bizarre-looking tanks feature a huge oblong-shaped rack on top, loaded with dozens of lethal incendiary or thermobaric rockets.
Sharing screengrabs from a TikTok video of the military convoy, PhD student at the Department of War Studies at King's College London Rob Lee wrote: "Thermobaric troops on the move."
The convoys were spotted travelling through the Russian city of Belgorod, around 40km north of the border with Ukraine.
Originally created as a long-range alternative to the handheld flamethrower, the TOS-1 and TOS-1A are designed to kill or crush any soft target in their path.
The Buratino - a Russian equivalent of Pinnochio - is unique to Russia's military; a self-propelled multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS) already deployed by Moscow's generals in conflicts including Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq, and Syria.
Similar to the enormous 240mm 2S4 self-propelled mortar, the TOS-1 is designed to obliterate heavily-fortified positions.
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Some of its destructive power was demonstrated in the Second Chechnyan War between 1999 and 2000 when the breakaway Russian province's capital Grozny was razed to the ground.
In one incident, a TOS-1 strike killed 37 civilians and wounded over 200 when a city block was razed to the ground.
TOS in Russian stands for "heavy flame thrower", but in truth, the TOS-1 launches a rocket carrying a fuel-air explosive (FAE), dubbed the "wall of napalm".
FAEs were first used by the United States in the Vietnam War when generals claimed napalm wasn't destructive enough.
While napalm weapons spread a sticky, flaming liquid over a wide area, FAEs cause the air itself to detonate.
A small explosive inside the FAE munition will spread a chemical cloud through the air like a lethal deodorant spray.
The Buratino and Solntsepek are very useful weapons for a military that might be going into urban combat with little regard for collateral damage
Charlie Gao
This gassy cloud can seep everywhere, into buildings and trenches, before a secondary explosive then ignites the cloud, causing a massive, long-lasting explosion.
The fiery blast can kill and maim in truly horrific ways, rendering body armour or hard cover useless.
A TOS-1 blast is twice as powerful as most conventional bomb blasts, and victims close to the blast radius are instantly crushed to death.
Sebastian Roblin, a military expert, writing for , said: "A TOS-1 rocket barrage will wipe out everything within the 200-by-300m blast zone."
Further from the blast zone, pressure can break bones, dislocate eyes, cause internal haemorrhaging, and rupture eardrums, bowels, and other internal organs.
They can also suck the oxygen out of lungs, causing them to collapse, suffocating their victims to death.
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As well as in Vietnam, the US later deployed FAEs in the mountains of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan, as they tried to hunt down Osama bin Laden in the network of caves.
The TOS-1's prominent launch unit - like a long nose - earned it the nickname Pinocchio.
They were spotted in a rebel training area in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine as early as 2015, while the Ukrainian government claims they were used in the aerial bombardment that destroyed Donetsk International Airport in January of that year.
The TOS-1A "Solntsepek" (Sunshine), is an upgrade of the TOS-1 designed to use longer-range rockets which can hit targets up to 6km away.
It also features more armour on the launcher.
Defence and national security commentator Charlie Gao said: "The Buratino and Solntsepek are very useful weapons for a military that might be going into urban combat with little regard for collateral damage."
It comes as US military sources have warned Ukraine Russia is likely to launch a full invasion in the next 48 hours.
Some 10,000 Russian "peacekeeping" forces are already within Ukraine, with Vladimir Putin claiming they are there to protect the two pro-Russia breakaway provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk.
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On Monday, Putin recognised the independence of the two regions, which first broke away in 2015, in a move seen by many as justifying an invasion of Ukraine.
At the weekend, new footage showed over 200 Russian tanks and rocket launchers rolling to Ukraine's border, as explosions were heard in rebel-held territory.
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