Amnesty International has accused Russia of war crimes during its efforts to capture the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine.
In a new 40-page report, the organization documented the alleged use of cluster munitions and other indiscriminate means of attack.
“The repeated bombings of residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv are indiscriminate attacks that have killed and injured hundreds of civilians and, as such, constitute war crimes,” the report said.
“This is true of both attacks carried out with cluster munitions and those carried out with other types of rockets and unguided artillery shells, which are indiscriminate when used in the vicinity of concentrations of civilians.”
Amnesty researchers say they “documented seven attacks in different areas of Kharkiv where they found 9N210 or 9N235 cluster munitions.”
The United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions, which came into force in 2010, prohibits the use of this type of provision. Russia does not sign the treaty (nor does the United States).
“Rockets release dozens of submunitions into the air, scattering them indiscriminately over a large area measuring hundreds of square meters, which poses a threat to civilians.”
Amnesty also said Russia used the PTM-1S, “a small, dispersible mine”.
Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior crisis adviser, said the investigation was “another indication of total disregard for civilian lives”.
“People were killed in their homes and on the streets, in playgrounds and cemeteries, while lining up to receive humanitarian aid or buying food and medicine,” she said. “The repeated use of widely banned cluster munitions is shocking.”
Russian officials have repeatedly insisted that they do not target civilians.
Source: CNN Brasil
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