Ukraine says Russia deployed its rarely-used, jet engine-powered ‘Grom-E1’ missile bomb in Kharkiv

Kharkiv suffered a series of Russian missile attacks this week.

Russia has hit Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv with a wave of strikes in recent days as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces continue their offensive operations in the region.

One of the attacks saw Russia deploy its “Grom-E1” munition in Kharkiv for the first time, the city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said on Telegram.

According to the Ukrainian government-backed platform United24, the Grom-E1 is a hybrid of a missile and a bomb that Russia began producing in the mid-2000s.

Based on the Kh-38 missile, the Grom-E1 is equipped with wings that deploy mid-flight and a jet engine, allowing operators to strike targets much further away (up to 120 km, or roughly 75 miles) than conventional aerial bombs, United24 reported. The hybrid weapon weighs around 1,310 lbs and has a roughly 695-lb warhead.

Serhiy Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Kharkiv region, said that Russian forces rarely used the Grom-E1, the report added.

The munition is first thought to have been used by Russia in Ukraine in March 2023 in an attack on the eastern Donetsk region, United24 said. It has also been used in strikes on Kupiansk and Kherson, it added.

Michael Purcell, who teaches Russia & International Security at George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs, told B-17 that the weapon allowed Russian forces “to launch at a greater standoff distance, which prevents them from being targeted, effectively, by Ukrainian air defenses.”

“Instead of a dumb bomb, you’re taking a missile and adding wings to it,” he said, adding: “You can think of it like it is an incremental improvement to a system based on the requirements of this tactical situation.”

Russia has continually sought to adapt its weapons systems during its invasion of Ukraine.

One key to Russia’s advances has been its use of glide bombs, relatively cheap Soviet-era bombs that have been modified by attaching wings and satellite navigation systems.

Such munitions allow Russian aircraft to release them from safer distances, making it hard for Ukraine to defend against attacks.

That difficulty has forced Ukraine to target Russian aircraft stationed at air bases inside Russian territory.

But it is limited by restrictions imposed by the West on the use of Western weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for such restrictions to be lifted as he seeks to increase pressure on Moscow.