Human Rights Watch accused Russia of the attack on the Kramatorsk station and called it a war crime

The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday that the attack carried out by Russia in April 2022 against the station of the Ukrainian city of Kramatorskwhich caused dozens of civilian deaths, could represent a war crime.

In his report “Death on station: Russian cluster munition attack on Kramatorsk‘, the organization points out that hundreds of civilians were at the station when a missile carrying cluster munitions exploded there, killing 59 people and injuring more than 100.

Thus, he indicated that the Russian commanders in charge of giving the attack order should be the subject of an investigation, in which an indiscriminate weapon was used against what was also an evacuation point for civilians in part of the invasion of the country.

“Russia’s terrible and illegal attack on Kramatorsk train station killed and injured civilians who were desperately trying to flee the fighting,” the investigator said. HRW Conflict and Crisis, Richard Weirwho said that “the brutal effects of cluster munitions against groups of people should be a wake-up call for Russian forces to stop using these banned weapons”.

HRW detailed that it interviewed nearly 70 people in Kramatorsk between May 14 and May 24, 2022, after which the NGO and SITU research They 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 which exploded upon hitting the ground. A woman who was waiting on the quay with her family said that “when the first explosions took place, they did not understand what was happening”.

“When people started screaming, I realized it was something terrible. We fell to the ground, but my mother-in-law (72) didn’t react fast enough and just sat down One of his legs was ejected and he suffered a fracture of the other, after which he died,” he said.

A paramedic who arrived at the scene minutes after the attack said “people were crying everywhere”. “It was very, very painful screams. I heard people crying who only had 20 or 40 seconds to live. I heard his last screams before death. I saw limbs on the ground, members of children,” he added.

HRW specified that the weapon used was a Tochka-U type 9M79K-1 ballistic missile and specified that the submunition used was the 9N24, containing 1.45 kg of explosives and split into more than 315 fragments, according to the manufacturer.

The organization indicated that Russia and Ukraine have this type of missiles in their arsenals and pointed out that, although Moscow has always defended that it no longer uses them, it has found evidence that Russian forces have launchers, transport equipment and Tochka missiles in the village of Kunie, northwest of Kramatorsk and within firing range, at the time of the attack.

Director of SITU Research, Brad Samuelsstressed that “cluster munitions are, by definition, indiscriminate” and stressed that “Russia’s use of this weapon against Kramatorsk train station, a known point for civilian evacuations, is horrific”.

“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 said.

(With information from Europa Press)

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