Deadly Russian dart shells hit homes in the Ukrainian city of Irpin. 'They're everywhere,' say neighbors

The destruction left by Russian troops in Kharkiv 5:06

(CNN) —

More than a month after the Ukrainian military recaptured Irpin from the Russians, Volodymyr Klimashevskyi continues to find small, nail-shaped projectiles scattered around his garden and embedded in the walls of his home. your hands, you need tweezers," Klimashevskyi says, pointing at the wall dotted with dark darts.

Called flechettes (French for "little arrows"), these inch-long razor-sharp projectiles are a brutal World War I invention when the Allies used them to attack as many enemy soldiers as possible.

They come inside in shells that are fired from tanks.

When the cartridge detonates, several thousand projectiles are sprayed over a large area.

Flechettes are not prohibited, but their use in civilian areas is prohibited under humanitarian law, due to their indiscriminate nature.

They cause severe damage by passing through the body, twisting and bending, and can be lethal.

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The United States used them during the Vietnam War and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs accused the Israeli military of using them against civilians in 2010 in Gaza, according to a US State Department report.

But other than that, it was rarely used in modern warfare.

Vadim Bozhko holds the darts he found near his house in Andriivka

After Russian forces withdrew from towns and villages north of Kyiv they occupied in March, evidence emerged that they had been using them during the assault.

Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, is not the only place where such evidence turned up.

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In the town of Andriivka, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Irpin, farmer Vadim Bozhko told CNN he found darts scattered along the road leading to his house.

Bozhko and his wife hid in the basement while his house was bombed.

It was almost completely destroyed by a shell.

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Darts were also found on the bodies of people killed in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, according to Liudmila Denisova, Ukraine's ombudsman for human rights.

Denisova said last month that after "the liberation of cities in the Kyiv region, new atrocities by Russian troops are revealed."

"Forensic experts found darts on the bodies of Bucha and Irpin residents. The [Russians] fired shells from them and used them to shell residential buildings in cities and suburbs," Denisova said in a statement.

It is not clear if the darts were what killed the victims.

Hundreds of metal darts are still embedded in the walls of Volodymyr Klimashevskyi's house in Irpin.

This photo taken on Friday, May 13, shows dart shells embedded in the wall of another civilian house in Irpin.

Klimashevskyi, 57, still clearly remembers the day the arrows began to rain down on him.

It was March 5 and he was lying on the floor of his house, away from the window, taking shelter.

A shell hit the house next door, but did not explode.

Darts covered the area and shattered his car window, he said.

His neighbors Anzhelika Kolomiec, 53, and Ihor Novohatniy, 64, fled Irpin amid the worst fighting in March.

When they returned after several weeks away, they said they found numerous flechettes scattered around their garden and on top of their roof.

They keep them in a glass jar in the yard.

From time to time, they add another.

"We found them everywhere," Novohatniy said, pointing to the darts still lodged in the courtyard roof.

"These stick out [from the ceiling], but they're usually spread out."

Anzhelika Kolomiec and Ihor Novohatniy show their friend Olegh Bondarenko the metal darts they found scattered around his property.

This photo taken on Friday, May 13, shows small arrow shells found in civilian homes in Irpin, Ukraine.

When they were finally able to return home, Kolomiec did what he does every spring.

She tended her garden, planted salad vegetables, onions and other plants.

Searching, she continued to find the small metal darts that the Russian soldiers fired at her and her house.

But her memory of those terrifying days of hers doesn't stop her from doing what she loves.

"I love gardening. I don't have a lot of space, but last year I had hundreds of tomatoes, I was giving them to all my friends. This year we couldn't get any tomatoes, but I have arugula and onions and some flowers."

CNN's Gul Tuysuz in Andriivka contributed reporting.

Illicit weaponsCiviliansWar in Ukraine