Amnesty International investigators have been in Ukraine collecting evidence at the sites of indiscriminate Russian missile strikes.
Civilian casualties from Russian attacks have increased significantly in Ukraine this year. Sumy is a city of 200,000, approximately 40 kilometres from the border with Russia. Russian forces have been firing unguided Grad rockets into Sumy, killing civilians. The Ukrainian authorities report 80 to 120 shelling’s each day in the Sumy area. Grad rockets cannot be precisely aimed, and in civilian areas their use fails to differentiate between military targets and civilians. Indiscriminate attacks that kill or injure civilians may constitute a war crime.
“Our research has shown how Grad rockets have caused death and destruction across a wide area of Sumy. These indiscriminate attacks must be investigated as war crimes,” said Brian Castner, Amnesty International’s Head of Crisis Research.