The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the biggest conflict Europe has seen since World War II, as Russia is carrying out a multi-pronged offensive across the country.
The Russian military has bombarded large areas of Ukraine with air strikes and has carried out extensive rocket and artillery shelling, resulting in heavy casualties.
Here's a look at some of the weapons used in the conflict.
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warplanes and missiles
The Russian military has used
Kalibr
(Caliber) warplanes and cruise missiles to attack installations across the country.
The Kalibr is a precision weapon, but the Ukrainian military installations and government buildings apparently targeted by these missiles in Kyiv and Kharkiv are located near residential areas, causing civilian casualties.
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The same goes for the missiles carried by Russian warplanes, which targeted military infrastructure in strikes that also involved collateral damage.
To hit key targets, the Russian military has also used
Iskander missiles
that have a range of up to 300 miles (500 kilometers) and carry a much more powerful nuclear warhead that can destroy large buildings and some fortified installations.
Some Iskander missiles would have been fired from the territory of Belarus, an ally of Russia, which has served as a base for the invasion.
rockets and artillery
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials have accused the Russian military of indiscriminately shelling residential buildings, schools and hospitals across the country.
Images from Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, verified by The Associated Press, showed what appeared to be Russian rockets shelling residential buildings in an attack that killed and injured dozens of civilians.
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The Soviet-designed Grad (Hail), Smerch (Tornado), and Uragan (Hurricane) multiple rocket launchers are designed to fire a volley of powerful rockets to destroy concentrations of troops or military equipment.
Their use against populated areas inevitably causes heavy casualties and extensive damage to civilian infrastructure.
The Russian Army also boasts a wide range of
powerful Soviet-designed artillery units,
strangely named after flowers, such as the Peony 203mm, Hyacinth and Acacia 152mm self-propelled howitzers.
Moscow has claimed it was only targeting military bases and infrastructure, but the AP has documented massive damage to civilian infrastructure and residential areas in Kiev, Kharkiv and many other cities and towns in Ukraine.
Russian officials have alleged that Ukrainian forces have widely deployed heavy weapons in residential areas to use civilians as shields, a claim that could not be independently verified.
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UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet told the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday that "the majority of civilian casualties were caused by the use of heavy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems and airstrikes on populated areas, with worrying reports of the use of cluster munitions hitting civilian targets.”
She did not specify which side may have used them.
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Cluster munitions and thermobaric weapons
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of using cluster munitions, charges the Kremlin has denied.
These types of weapons are designed to target enemy troops and weapons over a wide area, and their use in populated areas would inevitably cause massive casualties among the civilian population.
Cluster bombs, rockets, and artillery shells burst
open in the air, releasing submunitions, or "bomblets," that disperse over a wide area and hit multiple targets simultaneously.
Beyond the initial impact, bomblets have a
high failure rate,
posing a long-lasting threat of killing and maiming people long after being fired.
Thermobaric weapons consist of a fuel container and two separate explosive charges: the first detonates to disperse fuel particles, and the second ignites the dispersed fuel and oxygen in the air, creating a
shock wave of extreme heat and pressure
that
creates a partial vacuum
in a closed space.
This makes the weapon especially deadly to people in a confined space.
The Pentagon has said Russian mobile thermobaric weapons launchers have been seen inside Ukraine, but has been unable to confirm their use.
Multiple rocket launchers fire during joint Belarusian-Russian military exercises at the Brestsky firing range, Belarus, on February 4, 2022. Russian Defense Ministry via AP
The arsenal of Ukraine
The Ukrainian military has relied on the same assortment of Soviet-built multiple rocket launchers and howitzers as the Russian military.
It does not possess sophisticated long-range precision weapons like Russia's Iskander ballistic missiles and Kalibr cruise missiles.
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The Ukrainian military has
Soviet-era Tochka-U short-range ballistic missiles,
which have a powerful warhead but poor accuracy compared to the latest Russian weapons.
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In addition to its aging Soviet-made arsenals, Ukraine has received large shipments of Western weapons, such as Javelin anti-tank missiles and US-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.
Ukrainian officials said the country's military has used them to inflict heavy casualties on invading Russian forces.
The Ukrainian Army has also used Bayraktar drones supplied by Turkey before the conflict.
He has posted a video showing a Bayraktar attack on a Russian military convoy.
