Hundreds of civilians were killed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as a result of shelling carried out without the discretion of the Russian military, as part of a widespread attack that included the use of illicit cluster munitions and untargetable rockets. This is what Amnesty International stated in a new report published tonight (Monday).
The report “Anyone can be killed at any moment: reckless attacks by Russian forces on Kharkiv, Ukraine,” documents how Russian forces caused large-scale killing and destruction through incessant shelling of residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv from the moment the Russian military invasion of Ukraine began. in February.
As part of a comprehensive investigation conducted by Amnesty International, evidence was found that Russian forces repeatedly used 9N210 / 9N235 prohibited cluster munitions and even scattered mines, which are also prohibited for use.
According to the director of the medical department of the regional military forces in Kharkiv, at least 606 civilians have been killed and at least 1248 injured since the beginning of the fighting. Most of the injuries involved a large number of casualties in a large area at the same time.
According to the 2008 Cluster Munitions Convention, signed by more than 100 countries – but not signed by Russia and Ukraine – the use, development, production, purchase, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions is strictly prohibited.
Customary international law prohibits the use of weapons that are inherently used for reckless attacks, such as cluster munitions. Any such attack that kills or injures civilians is necessarily a war crime.
Thus, cluster munitions are inherently, inherently, weapons that do not allow for the exercise of discretion and are therefore prohibited for use under both the 2008 Convention and the laws of war prohibiting reckless attacks.
Amnesty International believes that every person who commits war crimes must be personally prosecuted before the International Criminal Court or another international criminal justice framework, at the national or international level. Amnesty International calls on the UN member states and the International Criminal Court to act urgently in Ukraine for the effective and reasonable collection of evidence and proof of war crimes under international law, and for their preservation.
Although Russia and Ukraine are not both members of the International Criminal Court, Ukraine was given jurisdiction by the court in 2015 to investigate and prosecute war crimes allegedly committed on its territory on February 20, 2014.
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