Playgrounds, residential buildings and cemeteries bombed: Investigations into possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine suggest Moscow killed thousands of civilians by indiscriminately using destructive and barbaric weapons far from military targets.
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“People have been killed in their homes and on the streets, on playgrounds and in cemeteries as they queued for humanitarian aid or food and medicine purchases,” Donatella said. Rovera, a researcher at Amnesty International headquarters, on the sidelines of the publication of an investigative report entitled Anyone can die at any time. The NGO claims to have evidence of the use of banned bombs in residential areas of Kharkiv.
At the same time, surveys carried out by the British daily The Guardianin collaboration with the NGO Bellingcat, a collective of non-profit online journalists dedicated to the investigation of war crimes, reveal that Russia allegedly used cluster bombs, unguided bombs and dart bombs against civilians.
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Since Russia is not a signatory to international treaties that ban these weapons, their use is not illegal per se. However, that does not mean that these bombs can be used in any way, recalls Éric Ouellet, professor specializing in strategic military command and decision-making at the Canadian Forces College.
“They are not illegal, but they are weapons with a wide radius of destruction. If we attack areas in which we know that there are civilians and no military targets, it is prohibited,” he adds.
Here’s what you need to know about these guns.
Cluster bombs
“These are shells released from aircraft or on the ground, which open up and release smaller bombs that scatter over a large area before hitting the ground. They are often used to destroy infrastructure such as take-off runways for planes,” says Éric Ouellet.
Since 2008, these bombs have been banned in more than 100 countries under the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Convention on Landmines, not least because almost half of the cluster munitions they release do not explode when deployed.
In Laos, where the Americans dropped more than two million bombs during the Vietnam War between 1964 and 1973, the UN estimates that there are still nearly 80 million unexploded submunitions. They continue to claim hundreds of victims each year.
Amnesty International claims to have several pieces of evidence that Moscow used cluster bombs in residential areas of Kharkiv, including unexploded shells and testimonies.
Russia has not signed the conventions that prohibit them, nor has Ukraine or the United States.
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Dart bombs
“These are bombs that are often used in fields, forests or more open spaces, with the aim of killing as many personnel as possible,” says Éric Ouellet.
Although these bombs are not illegal, Westerners avoid using them, since they are considered “immoral” in the public opinion of several countries, he underlines. The fact is that their operation strikes the imagination.
AFP
A dart contained in a Russian shell found in the Donetsk region in 2014.
Each shell contains approximately 8000 metal darts of 3 to 4 cm, composed of a dart and blades acting as fins to stabilize them in flight. After being fired from the barrel of a tank or howitzer, the shell bursts above the ground and launches the 8000 projectiles forward, in an inverted cone shape. When the darts strike a body, the dart bends and deviates from its original trajectory, and the blades detach to take an opposite direction, causing a second wound.
Pathologists and coroners who performed autopsies on bodies found in mass graves in towns and villages north of Kyiv found these metal darts embedded in the victims’ heads and chests. Residents of the towns of Irpin and Boutcha also told the Guardian finding it in their yard or shoving it into their car.
Unguided bombs
Russia has made extensive use of FAB-250 type unguided bombs, which are highly inaccurate, to attack towns in the Kyiv region, including Boutcha, Hostomel and Borodyanka. They can be dropped up to 12 km altitude.
Photo: AFP
Once again, Éric Ouellet points out that they are not illegal, but that it is the way in which Moscow has used them in Ukraine that poses a problem.
According to investigators from Guardian and Bellingcat, at least eight civilian buildings in towns north of Kyiv were destroyed with these bombs by the Russian army, causing hundreds of deaths. In the past, Moscow had used them extensively in Syria.
− With information from the Guardian
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