Ukraine's bold Kursk offensive prompts Russian airstrikes

"An operation is underway in the Kursk region," reports the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the latest military report, the Russian Federation's army continues to launch strikes on its own territory in the direction of the Kursk region to combat the Ukrainians stationed there.

Since the beginning of August 2024, Ukrainians have proudly reported successive successes related to bold attacks conducted toward the Kursk region. Consequently, the Russians regularly deploy heavy artillery and, in an act of desperation, even resort to shelling their own territory with valuable Iskander-M ballistic missiles.

Thus, the Russian Federation is trying to halt the Ukrainian raids near Kursk and force them to retreat.

As stated in the latest report from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, an operation involving Russian aviation is still ongoing in the Kursk region. "The aviation continues to strike its own territory with guided air bombs. Currently, there are reports of 16 air raids using 27 guided air bombs," the staff reports.

The Ukrainians do not specify the type of ammunition the Russians are using, but it is worth recalling that some of the most common tools used by the Russian Federation to attack enemy positions are the guided bombs of the FAB family. It is also significant that, according to the latest expert analyses, Russian warehouses currently hold over 100 Iskander-M missiles, which are also used to destroy enemy positions.

The FABs mentioned are a type of gliding bomb fitted with UMPK modules, which have brought the Russians much success on the battlefield. UMPK is a system that allows for precise targeting and bomb dropping on targets more than 40 kilometres from the drop point. These modules include deployable wings and a guidance section based on inertial and satellite navigation. Even if the precision of Russian technical solutions falls short of Western counterparts, these bombs compensate with greater destructive power.

Bombs from the FAB family come in various weights—500 kg, 1,500 kg, or even 3,000 kg. The latter contains over 1,500 kg of TNT, making it among the most destructive in the entire Russian arsenal. The blast wave of such a bomb has a range of several hundred metres, which means that it is capable of destroying even heavily fortified positions.