Marcel Gascon |
Kiev (EFE).- Ukraine has accused Russia on several occasions of using phosphorus bombs on the battlefield, the last ones this May in the battle of Bakhmut (east) and in the Zaporizhia front area (southeast ), where Russian forces would have used this extremely lethal and difficult-to-treat munition.
“I have seen them used many times,” Israeli-American combat medic David Brymer tells EFE, who volunteers in Ukraine, where he instructs soldiers and civilians in tactical medicine, and has repeatedly accompanied his disciples to the front.
Brymer was the victim of one such attack earlier this year, just before the January capture of the town of Soledar, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, by Russian forces, which dropped phosphorous on the position. in which he treated Ukrainian fighters forcing them to withdraw.
“Within 24 hours the Russians controlled that position and we had to move back,” recalls Brymer, before describing the effects that phosphorus has when it comes into contact with the human body.
Burns at 800 degrees
The white phosphorus used in these cases is a wax-like incendiary substance that falls slowly onto its palm-shaped target. “It’s not that it explodes and in 30 seconds it starts to burn you; it can take 10, 15, 20 minutes to fall on you, which makes you have to decide whether to leave the position or not, ”explains Brymer.
Remaining in the trenches, he continues, implies almost certain death, either by poisoning or by burns caused by this substance touching the skin, which burns at temperatures of up to 800 degrees Celsius when it comes into contact with oxygen and penetrates the body. human to the bone.
“It can melt even steel; if a drop of phosphorus lands on a tank and is left there, it will end up making a hole and going through it, as long as oxygen reaches it”, Brymer points out about the extremely destructive nature of this substance that is launched with mortars, heavy artillery or other types of ammunition. explosive
In addition to burning the body, the phosphorus gives off a highly poisonous gas that fills the trenches it is thrown into, with potentially lethal consequences for those who occupy them.
mud treatment
Due to its corrosive nature, wounds caused by phosphorus are very difficult to treat. “You have to cut quickly, immediately,” says Brymer about the only solution so that it does not continue to penetrate the body.
Applying water seems like an obvious solution to extinguish a burning substance on the skin’s surface. “But water contains oxygen, and phosphorus burns underwater,” Brymer warns.
The Israeli-American volunteer has consulted several doctors, one of them with experience treating injuries caused by the use of this substance in the Syrian war, on the best way to treat these injuries.
“Some of them suggested that I start using mud,” he recalls, and since then he has recommended that his students take buckets full of “moldable, like clay” mud to the trenches in case of attacks with phosphorus bombs.
“Pretty to look at” and “extremely lethal”
Since the beginning of the Russian military aggression, several videos of the flashes in the shape of a palm tree that white phosphorus forms in the sky when used in the theater of operations have become popular. One of the most popular was recorded during the Russian siege of the Azovstal steelworks in the city of Mariupol.
“At the front we call these munitions ‘candlesticks,’” says Brymer, noting the aesthetic beauty of phosphor drop, especially when used at night: “It’s pretty to look at, but extremely lethal.”
The entry Phosphorus bombs, the lethal ‘candlesticks’ that Russia uses to push Ukraine back was first published in EFE Noticias.