Seven civilians were killed by Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, the regional governor said Wednesday.
“Twenty-two civilians, including three children, have been injured during the shelling of the region. Seven people have died. A two-year-old boy injured by the bombings a few days ago has died in the hospital,” said Governor Oleg Synegubov on social media.
Russian shells that hit a residential area near Kharkiv airport on Tuesday also set fire at a vocational school and damaged several nearby buildings.
Firefighters fought to extinguish the flames that enveloped the school, located less than half a kilometer from the passenger terminal at Kharkov Airport, and prevented the fire from spreading.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense maintains that Russia is preparing to launch a new assault on eastern Ukraine to attempt to seize the city of Kharkiv and surround Ukraine's heavily fortified eastern front line.
Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, has suffered some of the heaviest shelling since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
A report by the world's largest security agency on Wednesday accused Russia of “clear patterns of violations of international humanitarian law” in Ukraine.
The report of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) stated that if Russia had respected its international obligations after invading Ukraine on 24 February, “the number of civilians killed or injured would have been much lower”.
The 110-page report, presented at the meeting of the OSCE permanent council, notes the damage and destruction of homes, hospitals, schools, water stations and other infrastructure.
The three experts who drafted the report, which included information from NGOs on the ground, said that, given the time frame and scope of their mission, it was not possible to identify war crimes.
“However, the mission found clear patterns of violations of international humanitarian law by Russian forces in their conduct of hostilities,” the report said.
The mission was created following a request from Ukraine on 3 March. It covers the period between the invasion of February 24 and April 1, before images of the bodies appeared when Russia withdrew from the city of Bucha and other parts of northern Ukraine. The images shocked the world and provoked accusations of Russian war crimes.
But the report noted that “the evidence points to a major war crime and a crime against humanity committed by Russian forces,” and called for an international investigation.
The authors of the report stated that it was “likely” that other documented “violent acts”, such as targeted killings, enforced disappearances or abductions of civilians, could be considered crimes against humanity.
The report also concluded that the conflict “has and continues to have particularly negative effects” on women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities.
(With information from EFE and Reuters)
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