Russian Federation (RF) forces repeated their use of banned white phosphorus munitions against civilian targets, using the incendiary weapon against houses and businesses in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, an official said on Thursday.
Serhiy Haidai, head of the Luhansk Regional Defense command, in a statement released to media said that in overnight strikes RF gunners used white phosphorus and other munitions hundreds of times in bombardments of villages Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Rubezhy, Kremenny, Novodruzhesky, and Voevodovka.
Four local residents were killed in the shells and artillery rocket fire, Haidai said. He made public video of what he called white phosphorus burning in a destroyed residence. Other media and news reports said the strike was in the village Rubezhny, the site of continuous fighting between RF and Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF) units for more than a week.
It was not clear from the reports whether white phosphorus, or some other weapon, killed the civilians.
White phosphorus is a long-burning chemical used primarily to make smoke screens or set fires. It will set almost any material aflame, including flesh, and usually cannot be extinguished with water.
The Geneva Convention, to which Ukraine and Russia are signatories, bans the use of all incendiary weapons against civilian targets.
Haidai said that the RF overnight bombardments in total damaged or destroyed 23 private homes and eight other civilian structures.
RF spokespeople have claimed RF forces only aim at military targets and infrastructure – a Kremlin assertion massively contradicted by eyewitness accounts, Ukrainian officials and thousands of images in conventional and social media.
Hadai said that in Luhansk region 35 villages have been damaged in fighting, of which 21 have effectively been made uninhabitable. He said that in the region more than 101,000 residents are without electricity, and more than 32,000 lack gas to heat homes and cook with.
According to statistics released by Ukraine Ministry of Emergency Affairs on Monday, nationwide, RF bombardments have hit and damaged 3,780 multi-story apartment buildings, of which 651 were totally destroyed. The greatest damage has been in the cities Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol, where RF forces are – according to Kyiv – using a strategy of attacking civilian homes and businesses in order to avoid fighting an increasingly dangerous Ukrainian army, and in a thus far unsuccessful attempt to break Ukrainian civilian willingness to resist.
