Dozens wounded in shelling of Kharkiv, as Russia strikes buildings with suspected cluster munitions

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials say at least 11 people were killed and more wounded in the eastern city of Kharkiv on Monday morning after Russia launched rocket strikes, targeting Ukraine’s second-largest city with some of the heaviest shelling and street fighting since the invasion began Thursday. Suspected cluster munitions struck buildings in the city.

Oleh Synehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, said Monday that “dozens are dying” and that at least 11 people were confirmed dead. He called the attacks, in three areas of the predominantly Russian-speaking city that had been considered more friendly to Russia, “a war crime.” “The Russian enemy is shelling entire residential areas of Kharkiv, where there is no critical infrastructure, where there are no positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that the Russians could aim at,” he said in a message on Telegram.

As the shelling began, many Kharkiv residents were lining up at grocery stores and other shops to replenish supplies after being shut in for several days. Mark Hiznay, associate director of the arms division at Human Rights Watch, told The Washington Post that Russian forces had used smerch cluster munition rockets, which disperse submunitions or bomblets, in the attack, according to footage he reviewed. “This attack clearly illustrates the inherently indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions and should be unequivocally condemned,” he said.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and open-source group Bellingcat have identified the use of cluster munitions in other Russian attacks in Ukraine over the past couple of days in what analysts say is a worrying sign that Russia may be turning to even more deadly military tactics. '“As Putin’s ‘special operation’ plan to quickly demoralize the Ukrainian army and occupy large cities unopposed appears to have failed, we may see a return to area bombings, which caused so much harm to Chechen and Syrian civilians,” Moscow-based Conflict Intelligence Team, an open-source intelligence group that monitors Russia’s military, said in a tweet Monday.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/28/kharkiv-rockets-shelling-russia-ukraine-war/

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Here is the tweet linked to in the WaPo article -

Link to tweet

CIT (en)
@CITeam_en
·
Feb 28, 2022
Replying to @CITeam_en
Earlier today, footage emerged of Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers flying towards Kharkiv, followed by footage of large smoke plumes, one of them geolocated in the North Saltivka residential area, next to Druzhby Narodiv (Friendship of Nations) street.
ToasterIntel
@ToasterIntel
Replying to @antiputler_news
This was taken here: 50.031454° 36.359348°. Camera is pointing north.
@Cen4infoRes @bellingcat
Image
CIT (en)
@CITeam_en
As Putin's "special operation" plan to quickly demoralize the Ukrainian army and occupy large cities unopposed appears to have failed, we may see a return to area bombings, which caused so much harm to Chechen and Syrian civilians.

We will be monitoring this situation closely.
8:14 AM · Feb 28, 2022