Tag: Bombs and Explosives

Destroyed Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine Floods War Zone and Forces Evacuations

A major dam on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine was destroyed early Tuesday, sending torrents of water cascading through the breach, flooding a war zone downstream, putting tens of thousands of residents at risk and raising the possibility of long-lasting environmental and humanitarian disasters. Ukraine and Russia quickly blamed each other for the calamity. […]

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Russia is Modifying Soviet-Era Bombs to Use Against Ukraine

“It’s evolution, countermeasures, evolution, countermeasures,” Colonel Smazhnyi added. “It’s a nonstop process, unfortunately.” According to Ukrainian and American officials, the Russians have retrofitted some of the bombs with satellite navigation systems and wings that stretch their range, turning an old-fashioned weapon, which Moscow has thousands of, into a more modern glide bomb. The Russians are […]

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‘Death Is Everywhere’ in a Once-Jubilant Kherson

The road to Kherson is long, straight and empty. Vacant fields rise from either side. Entering town from the west, you pass the ATB supermarket, one of the mainstays of the city’s shopping. It was blown up a few weeks ago, in the middle of the day, with shoppers inside. After that lie more crushed buildings, […]

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Homemade, Cheap and Lethal, Attack Drones Are Vital to Ukraine

Buzzing like an oversize mosquito, a small drone lifted off from a farm field in eastern Ukraine, hovered for a bit, then raced toward Russian positions near the battle-ravaged city of Bakhmut. “Friends, let’s go!” said the pilot, Private Yevhen. With a pair of virtual reality goggles strapped around his head, he used joysticks to […]

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Pentagon Aid Package to Ukraine Includes Decades-Old Anti-Tank Land Mines

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s most recent package of weapons for Ukraine includes relics from the Cold War to help blunt Russian advances and limit their ability to maneuver during an expected spring offensive. Those weapons, M21 anti-tank land mines, have been in service with the Defense Department since at least the early 1960s. An unknown […]

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Japan’s Prime Minister Safely Evacuated After Blast

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan was safely evacuated on Saturday after an explosion was heard just before he was scheduled to give a speech, the country’s national broadcaster said. The episode took place late Saturday morning in the western Japanese city of Wakayama, the broadcaster, NHK, reported. Mr. Kishida had been scheduled to give […]

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Airstrike in Rebel-Held Region of Myanmar Kills at Least 100

Myanmar’s military regime continued its relentless campaign of airstrikes on Tuesday by bombing a large gathering in rebel-held territory, killing at least 100 people in the junta’s deadliest attack since seizing power in a coup more than two years ago. At least 30 children were among the dead in the attack in Sagaing Region, said […]

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Lethal Surprises Hidden in the Grass: Russia’s Trip Wires and Land Mines

With a practiced calm, a Ukrainian de-mining expert gingerly pushed aside stalks of dry grass, revealing a lethal surprise — a hand grenade rigged to a trip wire, waiting for someone to heedlessly step on it. The discovery, near the Ukrainian town of Lyman, was just one small development in a wider cat-and-mouse struggle between […]

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Russia Accuses Dissidents and Ukraine of Killing Pro-War Blogger

The Russian authorities on Monday detained a suspect in the bombing that killed a popular pro-war blogger in the center of St. Petersburg, and blamed Ukraine and Russian opposition activists for the attack, signaling that the Kremlin could use the explosion to escalate its harsh crackdown against what remains of antiwar activism in Russia. The […]

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Vladlen Tatarsky, Russian Military Blogger, Is Killed in St. Petersburg Explosion

A popular Russian military blogger who was one of the most influential voices backing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was killed on Sunday when an explosion ripped through a cafe in central St. Petersburg, Russia’s Interior Ministry said. The blogger, known as Vladlen Tatarsky, was at the Street Food Bar #1 Cafe for an event in […]

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Japan Buries Memories of Its Last War and Worries About Another

The air-raid siren’s wail woke Yoshiko Hashimoto from her sleep. It was just after midnight on March 10, 1945, when the first of hundreds of American bombers appeared over Tokyo. Incendiary bombs soon crashed through tile rooftops, igniting fires in the surrounding thicket of tinderbox homes. Hashimoto and her family fled for their lives. They […]

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Ukraine Needs Shells, and Arms Makers Want Money. Enter the E.U.

BRUSSELS — So desperate is Ukraine for ammunition, it is firing considerably fewer artillery shells than it otherwise would, its defense minister says. But it is still going through shells faster than the West can produce or supply them, and making more shells is expensive. If arms manufacturers are to increase production and build new […]

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What Trench Warfare on Ukraine’s Front Line Looks Like

The Russian forces were so close that Boghdan, a Ukrainian soldier with the 79th Air Assault Brigade, could see them digging. Digging is what to do in this forlorn stretch of scorched earth in eastern Ukraine to avoid dying. Boghdan wants the Russians to die. So he lifted a shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenade launcher, peered over the sandbags mounted on the […]

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They’re Exporting Billions in Arms. Just Not to Ukraine.

CHANGWON, South Korea — A year after Russia invaded Ukraine, the war has spurred a global effort to produce more missiles, tanks, artillery shells and other munitions. And few countries have moved as quickly as South Korea to increase output. Last year, South Korea’s arms exports rose 140 percent to a record $17.3 billion, including […]

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A Brief History of Spying With Balloons

A Chinese balloon seen hovering over Montana this week has been described as an “intelligence-gathering” airship by the Pentagon and a stray civilian research airship by China. Whatever its intended use, the balloon offers a reminder of how for more than a century, governments have used balloons for surveillance and observation, most often during times […]

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