The Russian military shelled Nikolaev with cluster bombs, Mayor of Nikolaev Alexander Senkevich reported in his Telegram channel.
«Cluster shells again. Stay away from windows. I will give you all the information later,» the mayor said.
Conflict Intelligence Team investigators confirmed to The Insider the character of the damage suggested the use of cluster munitions.
«The pictures show a mark left by an exploded cluster sub-munition on a hard surface (asphalt in this case): a round-shaped central part with a fan of shrapnel,» the CIT said.
Senkevich said today Russian troops launched several rocket attacks on the city. Over the course of the day, shelling was heard throughout the Nikolaev region, particularly in the regional capital and Ochakov.
The Ukrainian authorities said earlier Russia had used prohibited cluster munitions to shell a populated area in the Kryvyi Rih district of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
On March 31, UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said during a meeting in Geneva that the organization's investigators were looking into 24 cases of Russia's possible use of cluster munitions, which resulted in mass destruction of civilian facilities and a large number of civilian casualties.
According to Bachelet, the indiscriminate attacks prohibited by international humanitarian law and carried out by Russia in Ukraine «may amount to war crimes.»
«The massive destruction of civilian facilities and the large number of civilian casualties strongly suggest that the fundamental principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution have not been sufficiently respected,» Bachelet said.
Russia continues its military invasion of Ukraine, launched on orders from Vladimir Putin on February 24. Russian authorities call it a «special military operation» to protect people «from genocide.» All these days, Russia has been shelling not only military facilities but also residential areas in Ukraine, including with cluster bombs, which pose a particular danger to civilians. At the same time, the Russian side continues to claim it is destroying only military infrastructure.
Anna Titova