Frontline report: New French AASM bombs deployed by Ukraine against Russian targets in occupied Kherson Oblast

Day 801: May 04

Today, there are a lot of updates from the Kherson direction in southern Ukraine.

Here, the most intense clashes are taking place on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, namely, in and around the village of Krynky.

As you probably remember, Russian forces have been struggling for months to liquidate the Ukrainian foothold on this side of the river. Even though the Russian Ministry of Defense officials have claimed several times that they have dealt with this problem, battles around the village continue, especially between drone operators.

Ukrainian forces unleashed the newest weapons provided by the Western partners and increased the pressure on the Russians by raiding multiple command posts, ammunition depots, and drone operator hideouts along the entire contact line as well as the rear.

The Institute for the Study of War stated that both sides are heavily relying on drones and that the most intense clashes are taking place in the sky. A Russian military analyst expressed his discontent that even though Russians are amplifying drone operations, Ukrainian forces have superior electronic warfare systems and flawless coordination between drone and artillery units in the Kherson direction, yielding much better results. In order to intensify their primary efforts to apply further strain on the Russians, Ukrainian forces started to target not only their key positions in the occupied part of the Kherson region but also specifically hunt down enemy drone operators and their ammunition depots.

The first major strike happened southeast of the settlement of Krynky where a Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb was used by the Ukrainians to destroy a building used by Russian drone operators as a hideout. The footage shows a massive explosion in the northern part of the village.

The next raid was conducted by 36th Marine Brigade forces near Lyubymivka, where a building used as a command post was monitored and targeted after significant enemy activity in and around it.

The effects of the strike were monitored live by Ukrainian operators to confirm the successful destruction of the target.

And as if that were not enough, Ukrainians took a step further and even introduced a new weapon – the highly precise French gliding bombs AASM Hammer, which can carry up to 1000 kilograms of explosives, which Ukrainian air forces deploy by using Mig-29 planes.

President Macron announced several weeks ago that France would deliver 50 such bombs from the variation AASM-250, which stands for 250 kilograms of explosives, each month to Ukraine.

The first use of this powerful new weapon in the Ukrainian arsenal is confirmed by geolocated footage from Kozachi Laheri.

Following persistent around-the-clock Ukrainian surveillance using reconnaissance drones, a Russian command post is identified within the village and subsequently eliminated with a single bomb.

The geolocated footage of the next devastating attack was shared by one of the best Ukrainian drone operator units working in this direction – Madyar Birds and it shows a deadly strike against an enemy drone base and command post in another part of Kozachi Laheri.

Initially, Ukrainian drone operators surveil the surroundings of the building, verifying its significance as an enemy base.

This base was responsible for coordinating Russian unmanned aerial vehicle efforts in the region. One of the uses was likely targeting the Ukrainian supply routes with boats across the river, which is a crucial part of the Ukrainian effort to keep the foothold in Krynky.

This confirmation was established based on observations indicating the building’s utilization for resupply by enemy forces.

It was immediately attacked with various munitions dropped from drones. However, even after incurring damage, the Russians continued to use it. That is why the Ukrainians finally targeted it with an AASM-250 bomb to finish the work once and for all. The footage presented by the Ukrainian drone operators ends by showing the catastrophic aftermath of the strike and the devastating power of the new weapon.

Overall, Ukrainian forces not only continue to hold the village of Krynky on the other side of the Dnipro River but continue to demonstrate a significant capability to strike Russian command posts, weapon depots, and all types of assets.

The Russians experience more and more problems when facing some of the most capable Ukrainian drone operator units, which are now not only supporting Ukrainian troops on the ground
in Krynky but also coordinating much more complicated fire missions in the enemy rear using high-precision Western air-to-ground gliding bombs.

Those devastating strikes by the Ukrainians led to the Institute for the Study of War assessing that the Russian Dnipro Grouping of Forces had been unable to conduct successful assaults for a long time.

With the much-awaited further help from the Western partners now already on the move to Ukraine, it is hard to expect any positive development for the Russians in this region.

In our daily frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.