Russian army deploys its TOS-1 heavy flamethrower, capable of vaporizing human bodies, near Ukrainian border, footage shows

• CNN footage shows a TOS-1 heavy flamethrower being deployed near the Ukrainian border.
• The TOS-1 heavy flamethrower is able to shoot thermobaric rockets.

Footage from inside of Russia appears to show a thermobaric rocket launcher being deployed towards the Ukrainian border, according to The Guardian.

—Frederik Pleitgen (@fpleitgenCNN) February 26, 2022

The video, shared on Twitter by CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen, displays a TOS-1 heavy flamethrower, which can shoot thermobaric rockets mounted on a T-72 tank chassis.

The footage was captured south of Belgorod, Pleitgen said, which is about 45 miles away from Kharkiv, Ukraine.

The TOS-1 was first used during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, The Guardian said, and was also deployed in Chechnya and the Syrian civil war.

It can launch two types of warheads — incendiary and fuel-air explosives. The latter, also called vacuum or thermobaric rockets, work by using oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion.

The weapons system is extremely effective against entrenched personnel. The TOS-1A is used to clear out buildings, field fortifications and bunkers, according to Military-Today.com.

They are considerably more destructive than conventional explosives.

According to i News, thermobaric weapons can vaporize human bodies and crush internal organs.

Western officials first publicly expressed concern that Russian President Vladimir Putin might use thermobaric bombs to seize control of Ukraine on Friday, HuffPost reported.

"My fear would be that if they don't meet the timescales and objectives, they would be indiscriminate in the use of violence," one Western official said, per i News. "They don't adhere to the same principles of necessity and proportionality and the rule of law that Western forces do."