Flechette artillery
Civilians in Bucha apparently killed by Russian metal darts from grenades
A woman mourns next to her son’s grave in Bucha. More than 400 people are said to have been killed during the Russian occupation of the Kiev suburb.
© Emilio Morenatti/AP/DPA
The Bucha atrocities are emblematic of the brutality of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. According to new investigations, dozens of civilians were killed there by small metal darts contained in artillery shells.
The pictures of the devastated Kiev suburb Bucha went around the world. More than 400 civilians are said to have been killed during the Russian occupation. As the British “Guardian” now reports, citing local doctors, dozens of people have apparently been killed by tiny metal arrows from Russian grenades. The use of these so-called “Flechette” projectiles is considered highly controversial in modern warfare because of their brutality.
8000 metal darts in one projectile
According to the newspaper, pathologists and coroners came across the metal arrows when they were autopsiing corpses from mass graves in Bucha. The pointed projectiles stuck several men and women in the heads and chests.
“We found several really thin, nail-like objects in the bodies of men and women, as did others of my colleagues in the region,” Ukrainian coroner Vladyslav Pirovskyi told the Guardian. Independent weapons experts have confirmed that the three to four centimeter long arrows are flechettes.
Up to 8000 such projectiles are said to be contained in a single tank and field gun shell. After the projectile was fired, the flechettes spread out in a cone-shaped area about 300 meters wide and 100 meters long. If such a metal arrow hits a person, it could break in two. The tip would bend into a hook, the back of the arrow inflicting another wound.
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Flechettes already used in the First World War
The research of the “Guardian” thus underpins testimonies from residents of Butscha, who “Washington Post” published a week earlier. A woman told the US newspaper she found several Flechtettes burrowing into her car after a nighttime shelling in late March.
As brutal as Flechette bullets are, they are not illegal under international law. However, their use in Bucha could still constitute a war crime, the Guardian said. Because the imprecise firing of lethal ammunition in densely populated civilian areas is a violation of humanitarian law. Human rights organizations have long been calling for a ban on this type of ammunition. “Flechettes are an anti-personnel weapon designed to penetrate dense vegetation and hit large numbers of enemy soldiers,” the Guradian quoted Amnesty International as saying. “They should never be used in built-up civilian areas.”
Flechettes were already used from the air against infantry formations during World War I, the British newspaper continues. US troops also used the deadly projectiles in the Vietnam War. Amnesty International also accuses the Israeli government of firing flechettes in the Gaza Strip.
Sources: “Guardians“; “mirror“