Russia is working on modifications to guided bombs. They will allow such bombs to fly up to 400 km, enabling Moscow to strike more Ukrainian towns and cities, including the capital, Kyiv, without using missiles, Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Head of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence, said in an interview with Reuters.

New wings of Russia’s genocidal machine

Russia is already planning to produce up to 500 improved glide bombs with a flight range of up to 200 kilometers by the end of 2025. To achieve such a range, the Russians are installing the SW800Pro‑Y turbojet engine manufactured by the Chinese company Swiwin.

In October 2025, the first reports appeared that Russia had begun producing new guided aerial bombs with upgraded UMPK modules, capable of hitting targets at distances of up to 200 kilometers.

Currently, two new types of Russian aerial bombs are known: the UMPB-5R glide bomb, equipped with a jet engine, and the universal gliding kit (UMPK), featuring improved aerodynamics.

Exact data on the possible operational range of both bomb types is unknown. Therefore, it is impossible to say whether the Defense Intelligence information refers to both types together or only to one of them.

FAB‑500T bombs fly farther with SW800Pro‑Y

The SW800Pro‑Y turbojet engine manufactured by the Chinese company Swiwin is intended for use in unmanned aerial systems and large aircraft models. Russian forces have also used jet engines from this company in their S8000 “Banderol” cruise missiles.

As for the upgraded UMPK module, the declared flight range of the FAB‑500T has now allegedly “exceeded 100 kilometers” due to improvements to the tail section.

Ukraine has struck four valuable Russian targets. The Ryazan Oil Refinery in Russia, the “Nebo-U” radar station in temporarily occupied Crimea, a military echelon near Tokmak in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and a troop concentration near Vovchansk in Kharkiv Oblast came under fire, Ukraine's General Staff reports. 

Molten metal and explosive waves at the Ryazan refinery

The Ryazan Oil Refinery produces A-92/95/98/100 gasoline, diesel, TS-1 aviation fuel, and other petroleum products. It is the country’s fourth-largest oil processing plant. 

“The products of this enterprise are used by the Aerospace Forces of the Russian military,” the General Staff emphasized.

Following the strike, multiple explosions and a significant fire were reported.

Nebo-U can no longer monitor from Crimea

The “Nebo-U” radar station in temporarily occupied Crimea was also hit, significantly limiting Russia's ability to observe and manage military operations in the southern direction.

The Nebo‑U radar system can detect fighter aircraft at a distance of more than 400 km when targets fly at an altitude of 20 km. For lower-flying objects, the range is 65 km. 

Precise strikes on echelons and enemy concentrations in Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv oblasts

A military echelon in the Tokmak area of Zaporizhzhia Oblast and a concentration of Russian personnel near Vovchansk in Kharkiv Oblast were also struck.

These strikes are part of comprehensive measures by Ukrainian forces to weaken Russia’s capability to conduct missile and bomb attacks on Ukrainian territory.

The Russian air force is lobbing as many as 5,000 glide bombs at Ukrainian positions every month, including some bombs weighing 3,000 kg. Just one of those aerial monsters is powerful enough to flatten a high-rise building.

The glide bombs blast holes in Ukrainian defenses, disrupt military logistics, and terrorize everyday Ukrainians living near the front line, leveling entire apartment buildings in one go.

In the battle for Pokrovsk, Russian forces drop up to 450 glide bombs per week on a single sector, destroying fortified strongpoints that Ukrainian forces spent months building—and allowing Russian infiltration. One FAB-3000 bomb can completely obliterate a fortified position, turning Ukrainian defensive networks into rubble and forcing troops into open fields where they become easier targets.

There are measures Ukrainian forces can take to blunt the relentless bombardment—but none are cheap. And some could take months if not years to have any meaningful effect.

Recent footage from the front line in Myrnohrad, in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, dramatically illustrates the power of Russia's glide bombs, which range as far as 65 km on pop-out wings and satellite guidance. Russian industry developed the glide bomb kits in early 2023 in response to heavy Russian air force losses during close bombing sorties.

The recent footage depicts a 1,500-kg or 3,000-kg glide bomb striking a multi-story building—and demolishing it.

"Glide bombs are a truly terrifying weapon," Canadian journalist Neil Hauer explained. He recalled a story about 3,000-kg glide bombs striking an apartment building in Kostiantynivka, in eastern Ukraine. "Leveled it to the ground in one go," Hauer wrote.

The inexpensive glide bombs, each costing just a few tens of thousands of dollars, dramatically reduce Russian warplanes' exposure to the most dangerous Ukrainian air defenses. Instead of attacking from directly overhead, planes could attack from 40 km (with the first generation of glide bombs) or from 65 km (with a newer generation that debuted this year).

Why glide bombs work—and how Russia protects its bombers

It's no coincidence that, as Russia's hundreds of Sukhoi Su-30 and Su-34 fighter-bombers switched to glide bombing since 2023, the rate of loss for both types has declined. Since Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian air force has written off around 15 Su-30s and around 40 Su-34s.

More than 250 of the jets remain in service—and Sukhoi continues to deliver replacement airframes at a rate of a couple of dozen a year.

Ukrainian forces aren't defenseless. They can:

• jam the glide bombs with electronic warfare systems;
• shoot down the glide-bombing Sukhois with their best long-range air defenses;
• and suppress the rate at which Russian industry completes replacement jets.

But jamming requires constant adaptation as the Russians add more and more satellite navigation receivers to successive generations of glide bombs. Long-range air defenses are in short supply as the Ukrainian air force prioritizes the defense of major cities and power plants against the most damaging Russian cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.

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Russian jets accumulate dangerous flight hours

Disrupting the Russian aerospace industry is a long-term solution to the glide-bomb threat.

Flying nearly daily glide-bombing sorties, the Russian Su-30s and Su-34s have "built up significant fatigue hours" on their metal airframes, analysts Nikolay Staykov and Jack Watling wrote in a new study for the Royal United Services Institute in London. Warplanes are built tough, but they can become unreliable and unsafe after a few thousand flight hours.

More and more Russian jets are reaching that dangerous threshold. The recent crash of an Su-30 may underscore that risk.

Strangling Sukhoi—sanctions and drone strikes

Ukraine and its allies can accelerate the decline of the Russian fighter fleet and slow the pace of glide bombings—by strangling Sukhoi and its suppliers with sanctions, and directly attacking the most critical production facilities with long-range attack drones.

The aerospace industry in Russia is uniquely vulnerable.

"Because of the number of precision subcomponents necessary to assemble fighter aircraft, even minor delays and disruption to production have a significant knock-on impact in suppressing the acceleration of aircraft production," Staykov and Watling wrote.

If Ukraine's allies can close gaps in sanctions on Russia's aerospace industry to cover all tiers of suppliers and, equally importantly, properly enforce the sanctions, it could "reduce the threat" from the Kremlin's glide bombers by reducing the number of flyable planes.

It wouldn't happen quickly, of course. It could take years before fatigue grounds a significant portion of the Su-30 and Su-34 fleet. Drone strikes on the factories could speed up the degradation by driving the production rate of new jets closer to zero.

But an intensive effort to drone Russian aerospace plants might have the unintended consequence of taking the pressure off the oil industry—and boosting Russia's wider economy.

At present, Kyiv aims most of its long-range drones at Russia's oil industry. The oil campaign has disabled 20% of Russia's oil refining, forced a VAT hike, and driven Moscow's National Wealth Fund toward exhaustion by 2026—"the most efficient thing Ukraine can do" to hurt Russia's war machine, as one economist says.

But every drone aimed at an oil refinery is a drone not aimed at aircraft factories building the bombers that drop 5,000 glide bombs monthly. Pivoting to strikes on airplane factories focus might reduce bombardment in two or three years, if it works. Every month of delay means 5,000 more bombs.

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Russian pockets found and erased. The 91st Separate Battalion, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Air Force Command, destroyed a shelter with the occupiers with scarce guided aviation bombs on the Pokrovsk direction.

Ukraine’s domestic production of guided aerial bombs is in the early stages of development. The Ukrainian Air Force currently uses Western-made weapons: GBU-39, GBU-62 of various calibers.

How the 91st detects and calls in aviation strikes on Russians 

On the monitors of the battalion’s command center, they detected several Russian positions with concentrations of occupiers.

“The unit alone cannot completely eliminate them — guided aerial bombs are needed,” the 91st battalion explained.

The battalion command decided to develop the operation in close coordination with aviation. In the released footage, you can see how the aviation bombs, also known as KABs, hit the target within minutes.

“The shelter with personnel was eliminated. Short. Precise. Effective,” the battalion reported.

Hundreds of KABs and FPV attacks on the city, where 1000 people remain

Meanwhile, Artem Prybilnov, head of communications for the Ukrainian 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade named after Anna of Kyiv, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that Russia increased KAB strikes on the Pokrovsk agglomeration to a record number in recent days.

For several days, there were hundreds of KABs per day.

Prybilnov noted that when Ukrainian positions are detected, the Russians strike them with 15 FPV drones and "always drop guided aerial bombs." They also use artillery and mortars.

He also said that Ukrainian fighters in Pokrovsk “are not retreating; we are moving to reserve positions because the defensive lines were completely destroyed and are not recoverable.”

As of 7 November, Ukrainian defenders repelled 58 Russian assaults in Pokrovsk, according to the Ukrainian General Staff. 

Nearly 1,200 civilians remain in the city. Evacuation from the community is practically impossible due to the security situation, reports Dmytro Petlin, head of the duty operations, communications, alert, and public information department of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration’s Civil Protection, according to a Ukrinform.

The Russians are killing all civilians in their path, and orders to do so have been intercepted from several sources.

Assault groups, disguises, and flags

Ukrainian press officer of the 425th Separate Assault Regiment “Skelia” with the callsign “Pysmennyk” or "Writer" says that the Russians are moving across Pokrovsk constantly, sometimes dressed as civilians, per Armiia TV.

No such group recently raised a Russian flag on the Pokrovsk City Council building. After verifying this information, it was decided to restore the Ukrainian flag. Assault groups were formed to carry out this task.

The threat Ukraine feared is becoming real. Russia is developing bombs that could strike far beyond the front lines. According to the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence, Russian forces have increased the range of their aerial bombs from 140 km to 200 km by using guided modular planning bombs (KMPB) equipped with turbojet engines, Telegraf has reported. 

Russian bombs reach beyond air-defense envelopes and threaten rear areas

The Ukrainian Defense Intelligence, also known as HUR, noted earlier munitions with shorter reach were used by the enemy primarily to strike targets in the frontline and border regions of Ukraine.

"The new bomb will be no exception, and its up to 200 km range will allow Russian aircraft to remain outside the engagement envelopes of Ukraine’s air-defense systems," said HUR.

In practical terms, today’s threats can now affect infrastructure and facilities that were previously considered relatively protected.

Chinese, American, and Swiss components helped to build deadly weapon

HUR also pointed to the origins of components for these munitions. According to the intelligence service, they are largely built using Chinese parts, while the high-explosive aviation bombs of the Kometa type are fitted with universal modules.

They also employ electronic components of Western manufacture, including products from companies in Switzerland and the US. 

The combination of accessible imported parts and adapted technologies provides the adversary with new capabilities for large-scale strikes.

Ukraine must adapt to changes in Russia's range and tactics

The emergence of bombs with a range of up to 200 km requires defense systems to revise their tactics and coverage zones, and to strengthen reconnaissance for early detection of launchers and attacking aircraft.

The battlefield conditions are changing, increasing the need for integrated air defense measures and the adaptation of air defense strategy. 

Russia dropped a record number of guided aerial bombs (KABs) on Ukraine in October according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Over the month, Russian aircraft released more than 5,328 KABs, the highest monthly total since the beginning of 2025. The Ministry said that in ten months, Russia has already dropped about 40,000 aerial bombs—matching the total number recorded during the entire previous year.

Guided aerial bombs, or KABs, are fitted with aerodynamic surfaces and guidance systems to improve their accuracy against designated targets. Their expanded use, combined with the new UMPK modules, has significantly increased the range and frequency of Russian bomb attacks across Ukraine.

Record month of guided bomb strikes

In October, Russian forces increased the number of guided bomb attacks on Ukrainian territory. According to the Ministry of Defense, over 5,328 KABs were used against Ukrainian troop positions and frontline cities. This figure represents the largest number of guided bombs dropped in a single month since the start of 2025. Officials said the scale of such strikes continues to grow.

Extended-range bombs hit Odesa Oblast earlier for the first time

In late October, Russian forces struck Odesa Oblast with extended-range guided bombs for the first time. Civilian infrastructure was damaged in the attack. Ukrainian media noted that these bombs have greater range and can reach deeper into the region than earlier models, expanding the threat area along the southern front.

Earlier, Militarnyi reported that Russian Su-34 aircraft have received new universal glide and correction modules, or UMPKs, for FAB-500T bombs. These devices convert conventional bombs into guided glide munitions capable of traveling over 100 kilometers. The modification allows Su-34 jets to launch strikes from outside the engagement zones of Ukrainian air defense systems.

Russian occupation authorities in Mariupol have announced the completion of "restoration" work on the drama theater that Russian forces destroyed in March 2022, the Mariupol City Council reports.

The Russians claimed that restoration work is finishing and they plan to open the theater to visitors in December.

On 16 March 2022, Russian military dropped an aerial bomb on the drama theater in Mariupol. At that time, hundreds of locals could have been inside, hiding and waiting for evacuation from the city.

After capturing Mariupol, the Russian occupying authorities announced they had finished clearing the debris from the theater. However, determining exactly how many people died there will likely prove impossible. Mariupol city authorities stated an estimated 300 deaths, while an Associated Press investigation cited twice that number.

Journalist Yuriy Butusov published intercepted conversations of a Russian burial team in Mariupol discussing the use of equipment, including tractors, to remove bodies from the drama theater.

The Mariupol City Council reported that occupation "investigators" claimed the smell of corpses in the drama theater came not from hundreds killed in the Russian airstrike, but from a hidden warehouse of rotten fish.

The Russians have begun using guided aviation bombs, also known as KABs, with rocket engines to strike Ukraine, but air defense systems are capable of shooting them down. Such bombs have already been recorded in the skies over Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Poltava oblasts, Suspilne reports. 

Comment from the Air Force and strike confirmation

Yurii Ihnat, head of communications for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, says that the Russians are using the new KAB modifications selectively, primarily to test the effectiveness of Ukraine’s defenses. 

“This is the bomb released from an Su‑34: by flight parameters, it resembles a cruise missile, so it can be intercepted by air defense systems,” Ihnat explains.

He confirmed that Air Command South shot down two such KABs. Another fell in open terrain without consequences. Specialists are already determining the type of munition.

New strikes — impact on cities and infrastructure

On 26 October, Russia launched a guided aerial bomb of a new modification toward Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

Its debris damaged an industrial enterprise. Rescuers were deployed to the impact site to extinguish a fire. One person was injured in the city. The day before, the Russians struck Kamianske in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast for the first time with rocket‑powered aerial bombs of the UMPB‑5/Grom‑E type.

Regional risks and expert assessments

Vadym Kushnikov, an analyst for the portal “Militarnyi,” said on air that, given the Kyiv Oblast's proximity to the Russian border, some objects there could fall into the risk zone and be within reach of these new aerial munitions, per 24 Channel.

“As for the city of Kyiv, the distances are a little greater there, and accordingly, the chances of effective and successful use are significantly lower,” he stressed.

NATO and Ukraine test innovations to intercept KABs

On 24 October, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense reported that the NATO‑Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training and Education Center and NATO Allied Command Transformation conducted the next phase of tests of an innovative solution to counter guided aviation bombs.

During tests at a French range, developer teams evaluated a comprehensive technical solution under adverse weather conditions — radar, AI‑based software, and a drone interceptor.

The statement notes that a radar equipped with an advanced sensor suite detected, tracked, and engaged a simulated “hostile” target. Then, using AI software, the drone interceptor followed a pre‑computed trajectory to engage the target.

“The development has progressed from concept to prototypes of various levels of technological implementation and is intended to protect Ukrainian soldiers and civilians from one of the most destructive threats of modern warfare,” the statement said.

The project to counter Russian guided aviation bombs began in March 2025 with the 15th NATO innovation contest hosted at the NATO center.

Ukrainian specialists are directly participating in the tests and providing expert assessments, allowing the solution to be adapted to the realities of the modern battlefield.

Russia has started launching jet-powered guided bombs with jet engines against Ukrainian cities deeper behind the lines. According to Yurii Ihnat, head of the communications department of Ukraine’s Air Force Command, these weapons have recently appeared over Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Poltava oblasts. Speaking on Suspilne, Ihnat said the bombs are being used in isolated cases as Russia checks how effectively Ukraine’s air defense can react.

Ihnat explained that the jet-powered bombs are launched from Su-34 aircraft and share flight parameters with cruise missiles, allowing Ukrainian air defense to target them. On 24 October, Air Command “South” confirmed the interception of two long-range guided bombs, while a third fell in an open field without causing damage. 

Ihnat urged Ukrainians not to panic, noting that the new bombs do not yet pose a major threat. He said Russia is experimenting with many aerial weapons, but Ukraine, together with international partners, continues improving its own defense technology.

Regional authorities in Odesa described the attack as a serious new challenge. Odesa Oblast head Oleh Kiper said such strikes present significant danger to civilians and infrastructure. Still, Ukraine’s forces report no casualties or major destruction from the latest incidents.

Russia expands range and production of longer range guided bombs

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) earlier said that Russia has started serial production of upgraded guided bombs with unified planning and correction modules, known as the Grom-1 and Grom-2. Their strike range reaches 150–200 km.

On 24 October, Russian forces used jet-powered guided bombs against Odesa Oblast for the first time.

Before the Odesa strike, Russia had already used similar weapons in attacks on Mykolaiv on 16 October and on Lozova in Kharkiv Oblast on 18 October. The latter bomb reportedly traveled about 130 km. Ukrainian officials see these strikes as part of Moscow’s efforts to refine new munitions for long-range precision attacks.