Following a thorough investigation, the human rights NGO says it has evidence that in seven attacks on neighborhoods in Ukraine’s second largest city in the northeastern part of the country, Russian forces used cluster munitions.
Amnesty International, a non-governmental organization, has accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine in a report released today, saying hundreds of civilians had been killed in incessant attacks in Kharkov, many of them with cluster munitions.
After a thorough investigation, the human rights NGO says it has evidence that in seven attacks on neighborhoods in Ukraine’s second largest city in the northeastern part of the country, Russian forces used 9N210 and 9N .
The report, entitled “Anyone can die at any time”, states that Russian forces killed civilians and inflicted heavy damage by bombing Kharkov incessantly and indiscriminately since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Residents were “killed in their homes, on the streets, in playgrounds, in cemeteries, while waiting in line to receive humanitarian aid or to buy food and medicine,” said Donatella Rovera, a researcher on Amnesty Crisis and Conflict.
“The repeated use of banned cluster munitions is shocking and shows utter contempt for the lives of civilians,” he added.
Although Russia has not signed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), international humanitarian law explicitly prohibits attacks and the use of weapons that are inherently discriminatory and war crimes. is emphasized in the Amnesty report.
Ukrainian justice has been conducting more than 12,000 war crimes investigations in the country since the start of the Russian invasion, according to prosecutors.
Tatiana Ahageva, a 53-year-old nurse, was at the entrance to her apartment building when several cluster bombs exploded on April 15. “There was a sudden bang as if fireworks were falling everywhere. I saw clouds of smoke where explosions were taking place. We fell down and tried to find cover. “Our neighbor’s son, a 16-year-old boy, was killed on the spot,” he said.
On March 12, Veronica Tserevitsko lost her right leg when a Grand rocket landed on a playground in front of her home. “I was sitting on a bench when it happened. I remember hearing a whistling sound before the explosion. “Then I woke up in the hospital, my right leg had disappeared,” the 30-year-old mother said.
Three people were killed and six injured when cluster munitions exploded in the same neighborhood on April 26, according to Amnesty. Olena Sorokina, 57, who had survived cancer, lost both her legs. She was sitting outside her house waiting for the delivery of humanitarian aid when she heard the sound of a shell in the air and ran to the entrance of her apartment building. “After the battle against cancer, I must now give a new battle, learn to live without legs,” he told the NGO.
Amnesty investigated 41 blows which claimed the lives of at least 62 people and injured at least 196 others. Members of the NGO gathered the testimonies of 160 people in Kharkov for 14 days in April and May, mostly survivors, parents of victims and eyewitnesses.
