JAKARTA - The relentless shootings using cluster bombs and the deployment of landmines by Russian troops in Kharkiv constitute war crimes that indiscriminately kill civilians, Amnesty International said.
Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, was under almost constant bombardment from the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, until Ukrainian forces pushed Russia away from the city in May. Ukraine says 606 civilians died there and 600,000 were evacuated.
Amnesty International said that after a 14-day investigation in April and May, it found evidence that Russia had used cluster munitions and scattered mines in Kharkiv.
"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," Amnesty said in a report.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine have signed the international treaty banning cluster munitions, which more than 100 countries agreed to on May 30, 2008 in Dublin, Ireland.
However, the use of such weapons is still a war crime if it is indiscriminate and kills or harms civilians, Amnesty International research consultant Jean-Baptiste Gallopin told Reuters.
As an example, he cited the cluster bomb attack on a playground on Mira Kharkiv Street, which he said killed nine people and injured 35.
Gallopin said Amnesty also found that Ukrainian forces had violated international humanitarian law by placing artillery near residential buildings, provoking Russian fire, although he said this "in no way justifies the indiscriminate shelling of cities by Russian forces".
In this regard, the Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Amnesty report. Previously, Russia denied targeting civilians and accused Ukraine of falsifying evidence of war crimes.
As much as Russia, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense could not be reached for immediate comment in this regard.
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