Amnesty: Russian Attack on Chernihiv Appears to be a War Crime

The Russian airstrike on the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, which killed 47 civilians, maybe a war crime. Amnesty International concludes that after its own investigation.

In the attack on Thursday, March 3, at approximately 12.15 pm, a small square was hit by several bombs. According to Amnesty, it was most likely a Russian airstrike in which at least eight unguided bombs, also known as dumb bombs, were dropped.

This was a brutal, indiscriminate attack on people going about their daily business in their homes, streets and shops, the human rights group said. The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court should investigate this airstrike as a possible war crime.

According to authorities, 38 men and nine women were killed. They may have been queuing for food. Amnesty was unable to identify a military target at or near the site of the attack.

The organization points out that dropping unguided bombs in populated areas violates the prohibition to carry out arbitrary attacks on civilians. In addition, these types of bombs have a long-range and are much less accurate than precision-guided munitions.

Video footage shows at least one striking bomb crater with a size that indicates the use of a bomb weighing about 500 kilograms.