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Russia attacks Kharkiv with FAB-500 gliding bomb for first time, injuring 4

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Russia attacks Kharkiv with FAB-500 gliding bomb for first time, injuring 4
The Kharkiv city center on Feb. 21, 2022, three days before the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)

Russian troops attacked the city of Kharkiv on June 26 with a FAB-500 bomb equipped with a gliding kit for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war, said Oleksandr Filchakov, head of the regional prosecutor's office.

At least four people were injured and two more suffered from shock, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.

Moscow's troops launched the bomb on the Kyivskyi district of Kharkiv from above the village of Maysky in Russia's Belgorod Oblast, Filchakov said.

The FAB-500 is a Soviet-designed 500-kilogram (1,100 lb) general purpose air-dropped bomb with a high-explosive warhead.

These cheap and plentiful bombs are equipped with gliding kits, improving their precision, but more importantly, allowing them to be dropped from much further away, outside the reach of Ukrainian front-line air defense systems.

Russian forces have used glide bombs at an increasing intensity in attacks on border and front-line settlements, including in Kharkiv and Donetsk oblasts.

The strike on Kharkiv damaged houses, a higher education institution and the State Emergency Service premise, according to the prosecutors.

Moscow has intensified attacks against Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, as well as Kharkiv Oblast, with the use of missiles, glide bombs, and drones, destroying energy infrastructure and killing civilians.

A Russian attack on a residential building and an enterprise in Kharkiv on June 22 killed three people and injured over 50, according to the local authorities.

Glide bombs help Russia gain land in Ukraine. What makes them so effective?
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Kateryna Denisova

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Kateryna Denisova is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent, covering Ukrainian domestic politics and social issues. She joined the newsroom in 2024 as a news editor following four years at the NV media outlet. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She was also a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.

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