A video showing the hair-raising moment two bomb disposal personnel defused a Russian bomb with their own hands and a bottle of water has gone viral.
More than two million people have watched the 31-second clip from Ukraine, which shows one man pouring the bottle over the end of the bomb while the other twists the seal out of it.
The men are equipped with only the water and a pair of gloves, with no helmets. The defusing process would ordinarily be performed remotely.
Experts say that the water was used to reduce friction in the fuse well, where explosive residue can get into the screw's threading. All it would take to set the bomb off is heat, shock and friction.
"The water is to prevent static discharge. Steady hands, nerves of steel," said Nick Stylianou, a Sky News journalist.
Charles Lister, senior fellow and the director of the countering terrorism and extremism programmes at the Middle East Institute, posted the video to Twitter.
He said the two men showed "mind-boggling bravery".
"This Russia-dropped bomb would flatten a building — and yet these Ukraine EODs defuse it with two hands and a bottle of water, while shells audibly land nearby," Lister said.
The clip was shared by the Ukrainian news outlet NEXTA TV.
It was shared shortly after Russia admitted to using thermobaric rockets in Ukraine that have the capability to "rupture lungs".
"The Russian MoD has confirmed the use of the TOS-1A weapon system in Ukraine. The TOS-1A uses thermobaric rockets, creating incendiary and blast effects," said the Ministry of Defence.
Thermobaric bombs suck in oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, typically producing a blast wave of a significantly longer duration than that of a conventional explosive.
They are the modern equivalents of flame-throwers and napalm dispensers.
Fired as missiles, on impact with a target the rockets spread a fuel-air cloud that detonates a fraction of a second later.
The resultant supersonic blast destroys buildings with a devastating pressure wave that can crush human bodies even if they are not in the immediate vicinity of the strike.
