Putin resorts to banned CLUSTER BOMBS

From: The Daily Mail

Dozens killed as Kharkiv is blasted with barrage of Grad rockets after Amnesty warned Russia's use of the weapons could constitute a war crime

Russia appears to have used banned cluster munitions to indiscriminately shell civilian areas in Ukraine's east that had stood up to Vladimir Putin's invasion in what would constitute a war crime.

Kharkiv, which has witnessed some of the heaviest fighting of the war so far, was hit by rockets fired from Russian positions on Monday - with video showing a shopping centre in the Serpnia area blanketed by explosions. A military source told MailOnline that 'cluster' munitions had been used.

'The BM-21 Grad is a multiple launch rocket system used for 'area denial', dropping cluster bombs on a concentrated area,' the expert said. 'It's mainly used on enemy troops before an offensive. Used against civilians, it's not only a war crime, but has only one purpose – to spread terror and alarm among the civilian population.'

Graphic images and video revealed streets littered with the bodies of dead and badly wounded civilians, with other images showing showing spent BM-21 Grad rocket cartridges laying in the streets and having fallen through apartment roofs.

Cluster munitions were also to destroy a school in Okhtyrka, activist group Amnesty said, in which three people including a child were killed. The attack 'appears to have been carried out by Russian forces, which were operating nearby, and which have a record of using cluster munitions in populated areas,' Amnesty said.

'There is no possible justification for dropping cluster munitions in populated areas, let alone near a school,' secretary Agnes Callamard added.

The blasts mark some of the most-serious attacks on civilians since the war began five days ago, and came despite Ukrainian and Russian delegations sitting down in Belarus for 'peace talks'.

Ukraine said ahead of the negotiations that it is seeking a ceasefire and total withdrawal of all Russian forces from its country, with President Zelensky saying he was not hopeful of results but had to try. Moscow would not be drawn on what its ambitions are.

Observers have warned that the talks could pre-sage an increase in violence, as Putin increasingly deploys heavy weaponry that was absent from early fighting in an attempt to force a victory that he has been unable to achieve by subtler means.

There are fears that Kyiv could soon come under very heavy attack, after the Kremlin warned civilians to leave the city via a 'safe route' to the south-west. Russia used similar tactics in Syrian cities while fighting alongside Basahar al-Assad before its forces heavily bombed them.

Russian armour is currently working to surround Kyiv with tank manoeuvering to cut it off from the west, after attacks by advanced forces failed to penetrate the outskirts. Colonel General Alexander Syrsky said early Monday that Kyiv had survived another night while inflicting 'heavy losses' on Russian attackers.

Though Russian advanced forces have been fighting in Kyiv's outskirts for several days, the bulk of Putin's assault force is still located around 20 miles away having been slowed up by determined resistance fighters - with satellite images revealing a huge column of vehicles headed for the city.

The cities of Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, and Chernihiv were also bombed overnight, with air raid sirens sounding in other areas.

In the south, Russians reported capturing the port city of Berdiansk with troops and armoured vehicles shown rolling through the centre, and were closing in on the city of Mariupol which was in danger of becoming surrounded - though remained under Ukrainian control as of the early hours.

Speaking on Monday morning, President Volodymyr Zelensky called for Ukraine to be 'immediately' admitted to the EU - after the alliance stepped up to supply hundreds of million of dollars of military aid to Ukraine, a first in the bloc's history - saying his country had 'earned' the right. He also said Russia's attack had so-far killed 15 children, and wounded dozens more.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet says her office has confirmed that 102 civilians, including 7 children, have been killed, and 304 others injured in violence in Ukraine since Thursday, as she cautioned that the tally was likely a vast undercount.

It came amid reports that Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko is poised to throw his own troops into the fighting, which US intelligence said could come as soon as Monday. The move follows on from Chechen forces being thrown into battle, which led to the almost-immediate destruction of a column of armoured vehicles and the death of one of their top generals.

Belarus on Sunday also voted to amend the country's constitution allowing them to host Russian nuclear weapons, which came after Vladimir Putin's chilling order to his defence chiefs to put the country's nuclear weapons on 'alert' in response to 'threats' from the West.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that Russia's decision to raise the nuclear alert was 'a reckless, dangerous decision'. He added: 'There's no reason for that. NATO is no threat to Russia. We don't seek confrontation with Russia.'