DONETSK, March 10. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military dropped a bomb equipped with the US-made JDAM guidance kit in the area of Kurdyumovka near Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut by Ukraine) in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) to test the possibility of employing it from Soviet-made aircraft, Yan Gagin, military-political expert and adviser to the acting DPR head, told TASS on Friday.

"These are air-launched bombs. Originally, they were made for NATO aircraft. Ukraine has no such aircraft. We believe that this could have been a combat test with a non-standard carrier. This can apply, in particular, to MiG-29 multirole fighters," he said.

The MiG-29 is one of the few aircraft that the Ukrainian military could have used for dropping the JDAM-equipped bomb. Ukraine employs these multirole fighters for launching HARM anti-radiation missiles, he said.

Ukraine’s Klimenko Time media outlet reported earlier on Friday that the Ukrainian military had employed the JDAM bomb in Donbass for the first time. In its confirmation of this report, the media outlet posted a video clip of the explosion that is spreading on Ukrainian Telegram channels. Neither the Kiev regime nor its military has yet officially confirmed the information on the use of the JDAM bomb.

The business news agency Bloomberg reported in late February, citing sources that the United States would deliver modified JDAM ER (Joint Direct Attack Munition Extended Range) guidance kits based on the global positioning system that would make it possible to convert standard air-launched munitions into guided weapons. As Bloomberg specified, the GPS guidance kit is attached to an air bomb weighing from 226 kg to 907 kg and its wing assembly enables the munition to glide towards the target to a maximum range of 72 km.

Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on December 1 last year that Russian troops had fully liberated the community of Kurdyumovka near Artyomovsk. Artyomovsk is located on the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic and is a major transportation hub for the Ukrainian army’s supplies in Donbass. Fierce fighting for the city is underway.

According to the latest information, Russian troops have cut off or placed all the paved roads to the city under their gunfire control and the muddy season that has begun seriously impedes the delivery of ammunition and reserves to the entrenched Ukrainian battlegroup.