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Freshly Dug Graves in Bucha: "Thin, Nail-Like Objects in Bodies"
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Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images
Dozens of civilian victims in Bucha, Ukraine, have apparently been killed by tiny metal darts from shells fired by Russian artillery, known as "Flechette" artillery.
Corresponding research was published by the British "Guardian" on Sunday, thereby substantiating testimonies that the "Washington Post" had compiled a few days earlier.
In its report, the »Guardian« refers, among other things, to the statements of pathologists who autopsied the victims from mass graves north of Kyiv.
"We found several really thin, nail-like objects in the bodies of men and women and others of my colleagues in the region," the paper quotes Ukrainian coroner Vladyslav Pirovskyi as saying.
"The majority of these bodies come from the Bucha-Irpin region." Several independent weapons experts checked pictures of the ammunition and confirmed to the Guardian that it was flechette artillery, a weapon already known from the First World War.
According to the report, a single artillery shell can contain up to 8000 flechette darts.
If they explode, the three to four centimeter long darts are released and spread over an area up to 300 meters wide and 100 meters long.
In the body of a victim, the arrow can break into two parts, one of which bends into a hook - serious and unpredictable injuries can result.
Shelling just before Russian withdrawal?
The Guardian report supports the testimony of a Bucha local resident and her husband, who were visited by the Washington Post a few days earlier.
Svitlana Chmut told the newspaper she found many of the projectiles in her yard on the morning of March 25 or 26, after shelling during the night.
Among other things, some of the arrows that she showed the Washington Post bored into her car.
Shortly after the alleged Flechette shelling, the Russian troops had withdrawn.
Despite the injuries that Flechette can inflict, their use is not per se prohibited under international law.
However, human rights groups have been trying to ban it for a long time.
Amnesty International accuses Israel of using the munitions during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in winter 2008/2009.
According to the Guardian, the United States also used Flechette during the Vietnam War.
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