The Guardian: Dozens of Bucha civilians were killed by metal darts from Russian artillery

Dozens of civilians in Bucha and Irpin were killed by fléchettes.They were found in their bodies by forensic experts, The Guardian reports. Fléchettes are sharpened steel projectiles similar to darts. They were used during World War I.

“We found several really thin, nail-like objects in the bodies of men and women and so did others of my colleagues in the region. It is very hard to find those in the body, they are too thin. The majority of these bodies come from the Bucha-Irpinregion,” Vladyslav Pirovskyi, a Ukrainian forensic doctor, told The Guardian.

The Guardian's experts say small metal darts are contained in tank or field gun shells. Each shell can contain up to 8,000 fléchettes. Previously, The Washington Post reporters found such shells among equipment, liquor bottles and food items abandoned by the retreating Russian military.

The collection and exhumation of bodies of civilians killed during the Russian occupation is coming to an end in Bucha. As of April 23, 412 bodies were found, Mayor Anatoly Fedoruksaid, adding the number is still being updated. «This means that every third person killed in the Kyiv region is from Bucha,» Fedoruk pointed out.

The world learned about the killing of civilians in Bucha on April 2. On that date journalists and the Ukrainian military entered the city liberated from the Russian occupation and saw streets strewn with corpses. Some of them had their hands tied behind their backs and some died from shots to the back of their heads. The Insider spoke with residents of Bucha, and they described how the Russian military shot random passersby, looted homes, and prevented residents from leaving.

Oleksiy Arestovich, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said the world should be horrified by what happened in the Kyiv region's cities of Bucha, Irpin and Gostomel. «Bucha, Irpin and Gostomel are the cities that have been liberated and resemble a shot from a post-apocalyptic horror movie. Among the victims of the war crimes committed by Russian troops are raped women whom the Russian soldiers tried to burn, representatives of local government, murdered children, murdered elderly people, murdered men,» he noted. Many of those killed show signs of torture.

As of April 19, more than one thousand dead bodies were found in the Kyiv region.