The city of Kharkiv, in North eastern Ukraine, was one of the hardest hit during the Russian offensive on the region last year, that was defeated by the Ukrainian forces.
Located some forty kilometers away from the Russian border, it is still under regular fire of Russian missiles.
In the city outskirts, in a location kept secret, the Kharkiv Prosecutor spokesman takes euronews reporter Valerie Gauriat on a tour of what has been named the Kharkiv missile cbemetary.
“This is a fragment from a cluster-bomb. It has these cuts inside. When that type of shell explodes, fragments fly apart, hitting people and causing heavy blood loss and often death”, says Dmytro Chubenko.
More than a thousand missiles have been gathered here since the start of the war.
Over 1500 civilians killed and 2700 wounded by missiles in Kharkiv in a year
Sorted by size and shape, they are analysed to provide International Tribunals with evidence of alledged war crimes committed by Russian forces against civilian
“Prosecutors and investigators describe this ammunition, in order to connect the specific type of shelling and the time of the shelling, so that we can detail and determine the destroyed houses, and people killed.”, says the Prosecutor’s spokesman.
“More than 1500 civilians were killed during the shelling of Kharkiv and the region. 2700 were wounded” he adds. “At the moment, we have more than six thousand criminal proceedings related to violations of the laws of war. That is, Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which is related to shelling.”
While people in Kharkiv are always on the alert for new attacks, the Ukrainian military command doesn’t expect an imminent massive offensive on Kharkiv , for lack of resources of the Russian forces, concludes Dmytro Chubenko.
Journalist • Valérie Gauriat
Video editor • Valérie Gauriat
