(ANSA) - KIEV, JUN 13 - Amnesty International accuses Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, stating that hundreds of civilians have died in Kharkiv in attacks carried out with cluster bombs.
The human rights NGO says it has found evidence showing that in at least seven attacks on the neighborhoods of the second largest city in northeastern Ukraine, Forzerussians used 9N210 and 9N235 type bombs and fragmentation mines, two categories of weapons prohibited by international treaties.
In a latest report titled 'Anyone Can Die Anytime', Amnesty explains how Russian forces have killed and caused immense damage by relentlessly bombing residential areas in Kharkiv since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
"People were killed in their homes and on the streets, on playgrounds and cemeteries, while waiting in line for humanitarian aid or shopping for food and medicine," said Donatella Rovera, a crisis and conflict researcher at Amnesty.
"The repeated use of widely banned hand-held ammunition is shocking and demonstrates a complete disregard for civilian lives," she adds.
Although Russia is not a signatory to either the Cluster Munitions Convention or the Anti-Personnel Mines Convention, the international humanitarian right - underlines Amnesty - prohibits attacks and the use of weapons that by their nature strike indiscriminately and constitute a war crime.
(HANDLE).