Sickening cluster bomb assault on city
AIR strikes killed at least 10 people and injured 35 as Russia targeted civilians in Kharkiv yesterday.
Shocking camera footage showed a rocket exploding in a massive fireball in the main square of Ukraine’s second city.
And experts say residential areas were blasted with cluster bombs – which scatter smaller explosives designed to maim and kill over a much wider area.
The Kremlin denied using the weapons and claimed it was aiming at military targets.
But Sam Dubberley, head of the Digital Investigations Lab at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said: “Kharkiv appears to have been the target of multiple cluster munition attacks.
“We have geolocated one showing what appears to be several civilian victims a short way away.”
He was backed by another munitions expert, ex-British Army officer Hamish de Bretton-Gordon who said: “This does look very much like cluster bombs and similar to those I’ve seen going off in Iraq and Syria.”
CCTV showed a missile hitting the regional administration building on Freedom Square at around 8am local time.
The huge explosion smashed the facade, roof and interior and also damaged the nearby opera house and concert hall.
Footage of the aftermath showed burned-out vehicles and other debris scattered around the landmark square – one of the largest in Europe.
Regional governor Oleg Sinegubov called the attack a war crime, adding: “Russian occupiers continue to use heavy weaponry against the civilian population.”
He said Russia launched GRAD and cruise missiles on Kharkiv but the city’s defence was holding to protect its 1.5 million people. One of the dead in the city yesterday was an Indian student killed by shelling, the country’s foreign ministry confirmed – one of thousands of foreign students trapped in Ukraine since the invasion started.
Maria Avdeeva, an international security expert based in Kharkiv, told the BBC: “Yesterday there was very intense shelling on residential areas. Actually, it was the first time that Russia was deliberately targeting houses with people living there.
“We still have water, it is running in the house. But at any moment Russia could hit the critical infrastructure facilities. There are shortages of food already.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky repeated calls for Nato to impose a no-fly zone over his country, something the alliance insists it will not do.
He said: “This is not about dragging Nato countries into war. The truth is everyone has long since been dragged into war and definitely not by Ukraine, but by Russia.”
Asked about the situation in Kharkiv during a press conference in Estonia, Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it “absolutely sickening”.
He added: “It reminds me of the shelling of Sarajevo market by the Serbs, the shelling of innocent people in Bosnia, it has that feel
to me of an atrocity committed deliberately against a civilian centre. I think people’s stomachs are being turned by what’s happening, and they’re seeing it’s necessary to stand up against Russian aggression and to support the Ukrainians.”
The Slovenian foreign ministry said the country’s consulate in Ukraine was destroyed in the attack on Kharkiv but no employees were injured in the attack.
One local, Anna Proskurnina, 24, said bombs were raining down “like thunder”.
Ms Proskurnina said she had lost 6.6lb in
weight since the invasion started. She explained: “The anxiety is way too high to even put something in your mouth. I took a cookie with a cup of tea today and felt like I’m going to puke. It feels horrible allowing yourself to eat.”
Ms Proskurnina added: “We live on the first floor so we stay here but every time there is shelling close I can hear neighbours rushing down to the basement.
“My biggest fear would be to lose the internet connection so we wouldn’t know what’s [happening] as a couple of areas are
out of electricity and mobile connection. I’ve been trying to connect a logic path between everything and cannot think of anything else but pure genocide.”
Another resident is hiding in a bomb shelter with her family, for fear of not knowing where Russian shelling will strike next.
She said: “I’m here with my two children, my husband and other people who live in our [home].”,
The woman said Ukraine’s president was right to call Russia’s actions in Ukraine a war crime, adding: “It’s in all parts of the city”.