This is stated in the report of the international human rights organization Amnesty International, published on Monday, June 13.
Repeated shelling of residential areas of Kharkiv is an indiscriminate blow and as such it is a war crime, human rights activists say.
Amnesty International claims to have conclusive evidence that Russian troops have repeatedly used cluster bombs and anti-personnel mines banned by international conventions.
Russia has denied the use of banned munitions.
Residential areas of Kharkiv have been shelled and bombed since the first day of the war, and in two months of continuous strikes the city with a population of one and a half million people has suffered heavy losses.
According to the Kharkiv Military-Civil Administration, 606 people died and 1,248 were injured during the war.
Amnesty International interviewed about 160 Kharkiv residents, including victims of the shelling, their witnesses, relatives of the victims, and doctors treating the wounded, and documented at least 28 cases of indiscriminate strikes on Kharkiv by Russia.
Unguided missiles "Hail" and "Hurricane", which the Russian army is widely used in the war against Ukraine, is not able to accurately hit the target, often deviating from it by more than 100 meters.
In residential areas where houses are only a few meters apart, the use of such missiles and conventional artillery inevitably results in many civilian casualties, Amnesty International said.
An internal component of a cluster rocket launched from the BM-30 Tornado multiple rocket launcher near the graves of the Memorial in Memory of Thousands of Polish Officers Killed in 1940 by the NKVD (Katyn Shooting).
Kharkiv, March 23, 2022
Cluster bombs are equipped with elements that when exploded in the air hit an area of hundreds of square meters.
Violent shelling, which kills civilians and destroys civilian infrastructure, is considered a war crime.
Those responsible for these attacks should be brought to justice, and the victims and relatives of the victims should receive compensation, human rights activists say.
Russia's war against Ukraine
At 5 am on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a military operation against Ukraine in the Donbas at the request of the DNR and LNR groups.
On February 21, during a televised address to the Russians, Putin called the so-called "DPR" and "LPR" independent states within the regions.
On February 22, the Federation Council ratified the decision.
All the days of the war are shelling Ukrainian cities with missiles, flying aircraft.
Russian troops are attacking, including from the territory of Belarus, using airfields, bases and roads.
Representatives of the Lukashenko regime justify the war, the opposition considers the territory of Belarus occupied and calls for resistance to Russian invaders.
On February 27, the International Legion of Territorial Defense was established in Ukraine, and foreign volunteers were encouraged to join.
Belarusians also entered there.
During the two and a half months of the war, six Belarusian volunteers and soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed at the front: Alexei "Tour" Skobla, Ilya "Litvin" Hrenov, Dmitry "Terror" Apanasovich, Dmitry "Hans" Rubashevsky, Konstantin "Phoenix" Phoenix "Dubaila" .
On March 30, the UN approved the composition of an independent commission to investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
It included people who worked in the conflict in Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Contrary to Putin's claims of attacks exclusively on military facilities, the Russians are bombing schools, kindergartens and residential areas of Ukrainian cities.
The Russians are using banned weapons, including cluster bombs against civilians.
The number of refugees from Ukraine exceeded 5.5 million people.
On April 1, Lithuania became the first EU country to completely abandon Russian gas.
Latvia and Estonia followed suit.
Germany has promised to completely suspend the use of Russian oil by the end of 2022.
On April 2, after the liberation of the city of Bucha near Kiev, photojournalists published dozens of photos showing hundreds of the dead, victims of massacres committed by Russian troops.
Many are buried in natural mass graves.
The Russian occupation and Borodyanka brought great destruction.
A number of rapes, including infants, are also known.
In April, the number of missile attacks on Ukraine and air strikes from Belarus decreased, and Russian troops began to leave Belarus.
Since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 26 media representatives have been killed - 19 journalists and 7 other workers.
In May, the Ukrainians launched a counteroffensive in the Slobozhanshchina region, pushing the invaders to their borders.
On May 9, the President of the United States signed the Land League Act.
This law restores the program of the Second World War, which will accelerate the supply of weapons to Ukraine and increase such assistance.
On the night of May 17, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar confirmed the start of an operation to rescue Ukrainian servicemen trapped in the territory of "Azovstal".
According to her, 53 seriously injured people were evacuated from there to the medical institution of occupied Novoazovsk.
Another 211 people were taken to Alenivka along the humanitarian corridor.
Russia's Defense Ministry says nearly 1,000 Ukrainian fighters at the plant "surrendered" as of May 18.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has officially registered these fighters as prisoners of war.
Independent verification of information about hostilities provided by officials of various parties is not yet possible.