The NGO demands that those responsible for the “terrible” attack with cluster bombs be tried
MADRID, 21 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has affirmed this Tuesday that the attack carried out by Russia in April 2022 against the train station in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, which resulted in dozens of civilian deaths, could amount to a crime. of war.
In its report ‘Death at the station: Russian cluster munition attack on Kramatorsk’, the organization highlights that hundreds of civilians were at the station when a missile carrying cluster munitions exploded there, killing 59 people and wounding over a hundred.
Thus, it has indicated that the Russian commanders responsible for giving the attack order should be investigated, in which an indiscriminate weapon was used against what was also an evacuation point for civilians in the framework of the country’s invasion.
“Russia’s terrible and illegal attack on the Kramatorsk train station killed and injured civilians desperately trying to flee the fighting,” said Richard Weir, a researcher for Crisis and Conflict at HRW, who indicated that “the effects brutal use of cluster munitions against groups of people should be a wake-up call for Russian forces to stop using these banned weapons”.
HRW has detailed that it interviewed nearly 70 people in Kramatorsk between May 14 and 24, 2022, after which the NGO and SITU Research analyzed more than 200 videos and photographs, as well as satellite images to try to clarify the event.
The ballistic missile exploded over the station at 10:28 a.m. (local time), releasing dozens of submunitions that exploded on hitting the ground. A woman who was waiting on the platform with her family has recounted that “when the first explosions took place, they did not understand what was happening.”
“When people started screaming, I understood that it was something terrible. We fell to the ground, but my mother-in-law (72 years old) didn’t react fast enough and she just sat down. One of her legs was thrown off and the other suffered a fracture, after being shot. who died,” he said.
An ambulance driver who arrived at the scene minutes after the attack has recounted that “people were crying everywhere.” “They were very, very painful cries. I heard people cry who have 20 or 40 seconds to live. I heard their last cries before death. I saw limbs on the ground, limbs of children,” he added.
HRW has specified that the weapon used was a Tochka-U type 9M79K-1 ballistic missile and has detailed that the submunition used was 9N24, which contains 1.45 kilograms of explosives and is divided into more than 315 fragments, according to the manufacturer.
The organization has indicated that both Russia and Ukraine have this type of missile in their arsenals and has pointed out that, although Moscow has always defended that it no longer uses them, it has found evidence that the Russian forces had launch vehicles, equipment transport and Tochka missiles in the village of Kunie, northwest of Kramatorsk and within firing range, at the time of the attack.
The director of SITU Research, Brad Samuels, has emphasized that “cluster munitions are, by definition, indiscriminate” and has outlined that “Russia’s use of this weapon against the Kramatorsk train station, a point known for civilian evacuations, it’s horrible.”
“All countries must unequivocally condemn this attack and any other use of cluster munitions. The attack must be investigated and those responsible must be brought to justice,” he added.