By Denise Chow—
NBC News
Accusations that Russia may be using the horrific thermobaric weapons in Ukraine have fueled fears of the devastation that would be caused by attacks with so-called vacuum bombs.
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, said on Monday that the Russian military had already used a
vacuum pump,
which
sucks oxygen out of the air to trigger a huge explosion.
Markarova did not provide additional details and NBC News has not been able to independently verify that the weapon has been used in Ukraine, but a CNN crew has photographed Russian thermobaric rocket launchers entering the country.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the Republican leader on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Twitter on Saturday that Russia has indeed deployed vehicles with thermobaric weapons.
A senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that the United States had detected that Russia had deployed launcher systems that can be used for thermobaric weapons, but could not confirm whether there were actually warheads.
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The allegation adds to growing concern expressed by several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, that Russia is carrying out indiscriminate attacks on densely populated civilian areas that could amount to war crimes.
The potential use of vacuum bombs is of particular concern because these thermobaric munitions are designed to cause immense destruction.
Russian Army thermobaric weapons at a defense exhibition on August 25, 2021. Leonid Faerberg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
"It's a horrible, devastating weapon
," said David Johnson, a retired colonel and researcher for the RAND Corporation, a California-based nonprofit.
What is a vacuum pump?
Thermobaric weapons, or vacuum bombs, are a type of two-stage munition that create huge explosions.
Launched in a rocket or artillery shell, the first explosive charge spreads an aerosol similar to vaporized gasoline over the area.
A second charge then ignites the aerosol mist, creating a huge explosion, flames, a large pressure wave, and a vacuum by sucking in oxygen from the surrounding air.
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Johnson said thermobaric munitions are sometimes known as "the poor man's nuke" because they can annihilate anyone in close proximity.
Victims
are killed by the explosion or its accompanying shock wave,
and the subsequent vacuum can rupture the lungs.
The type of thermobaric weapon that has been seen with Russian convoys inside Ukraine is known as the TOS-1A multiple rocket launcher.
It has a range of about 2.5 miles and a blast radius that extends about 1,000 feet, Johnson said.
“Anything inside would be vaporized, essentially,” he said.
Explosion of a thermobaric bomb during the 2016 Caucasus strategic drills.Sergei Savostyanov/TASS via Getty Images
Have they been used before?
These types of thermobaric weapons have been in development since the 1970s. They were used by Russian troops in Chechnya in the 1990s, and Johnson said there was some evidence that they were deployed in 2016 by Syrian government forces and their Russian allies in the city of Aleppo.
US forces also used thermobaric weapons in Afghanistan in 2017 to destroy cave and tunnel complexes, Johnson said.
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These weapons are sometimes nicknamed "bunker busters" because they can effectively demolish defensive barriers. "If you approach from about 2.5 miles away, you can drop not just one, but dozens of them and blow a hole in the defensive position," he said. .
Although not designed for use in urban areas, vacuum bombs could be especially deadly if fired at building complexes in densely populated regions.
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"You can imagine that if this was contained within a closed space, nothing would survive within that space," Johnson said.
“If you don't die immediately,
the pressure will rupture your internal organs.
It's really horrendous,” he noted.
How dangerous are these weapons?
Despite the horrific destruction that thermobaric munitions can cause,
there are no laws prohibiting their use in warfare,
although they are widely condemned by non-governmental organizations.
However, the use of such weapons against civilians is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions and could constitute a war crime.
"It's like the neutron bomb: there was no ban on it, but everyone realized how horrible it was and they didn't want it," Johnson said.
Rescuers search for bodies under rubble after an airstrike in Idlib, Syria, in 2017. Bashar Al-Assad's regime reportedly used a vacuum pump in the attack.Firas Faham/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Although it is not clear if Russia has already used vacuum pumps in Ukraine, Johnson said he fears it is only a matter of time.
“I have no doubt that they will use them,” he
said, “they have them there because these weapons have combat operational utility.
At some point, the Russians are going to run into something, whether it's in one of the cities or in a defensive position, and it's going to be their weapon of choice."