Ukraine says Russia is using deadly weapons
May cause mass casualties in bid to capture Eastern Ukraine
Kyiv, June 11: Ukrainian and British officials warned on Saturday that Russian forces are relying on weapons with the potential to cause mass casualties as they try to make headway in capturing eastern Ukraine and as fierce fighting depletes resources on both sides.
Russian bombers have likely been launching heavy 1960s-era anti-ship missiles in Ukraine, the UK Defence Ministry said.
The Kh-22 missiles were primarily designed to destroy aircraft carriers using a nuclear warhead. When used in ground attacks with conventional warheads, they are highly inaccurate and therefore can cause severe collateral damage and casualties, the ministry said.
Both sides have expended large amounts of weaponry in what has become a grinding war of attrition for the eastern region of coal mines and factories known as the Donbas, placing huge strains on their resources and stockpiles.
Russia is likely using the
5.5-tonne (6.1-tonne) antiship missiles because it is running short of more precise modern missiles, the British ministry said.
It gave no details of where exactly such missiles are thought to have been deployed.
Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence, Vadym Skibitsky, told The Guardian newspaper that Ukraine was using 5,000 to
6,000 artillery rounds a day, and is now dependent on what the West gives it.
A Ukrainian regional governor has accused Russia of using incendiary weapons in the village of Vrubivka in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk
province, southwest of the fiercely contested cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. While the use of flamethrowers on the battlefield is legal, Serhii Haidai, governor of Luhansk province, alleged the attacks overnight
caused widespread damage to civilian facilities.
Information about the number of victims in Vrubivka, in the Popasnyanska district, is being specified.
At night, the enemy used a flamethrower rocket system
— many houses burnt down, Haidai wrote on Telegram on Saturday morning. He also said that Russian forces continued their assault on Sievierodonetsk and were destroying critical industrial facilities.