1,100-Pound Bomb Removed From Roof of Kharkiv Apartment Block

Combat engineers and rescuers removed an undetonated bomb stuck in an apartment building in Kharkiv on Thursday, June 23, Ukrainian officials said.

According to the State Emergency Service (SES) of Ukraine, the unexploded bomb, an FAB-500, weighed 1,100 pounds and was carrying 660 pounds of explosives – enough to demolish the entire nine story apartment building.

A pyrotechnics crew was able to deactivate the bomb in March, the SES said, by unscrewing the contact detonator, but were unable to fully neutralize it due to ongoing strikes by Russian forces. On Thursday, a 10-person rescue crew used a forklift and truck crane to dislodge it from the building and properly dispose of it.

“In the time being the city is calm, and this allowed us to get the job done,” said one of the crew members, referring to a decrease in airstrikes.

This footage from the SES shows their crew carefully hooking the bomb to the crane and lifting it out of a hole in the roof. They then load the neutralized explosive into a pyrotechnic truck marked with the word “demining” on the side. Credit: SES Kharkiv via Storyful