Incident Code
Incident Date
Location
Geolocation
Geolocation
Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: RUK0078)
Between four and six civilians, including an elderly woman, were killed and at least two others, including a child, were wounded by alleged Russian or Ukrainian shelling of Kozacha Lopan in Kharkiv on March 17, 2022.
The head of the Dergachev community Vyacheslav Zadorenko announced on Facebook that Russian forces used cluster bombs and “as a result, at least six people were killed, data on the number of injured are being investigated. The invaders bombed the railway station, shops, pharmacies and other civilian buildings in the center of the village. At the same time, the military infrastructure that the invaders placed in Kazachya, as well as the Russian military, were not damaged.” Various local sources quoted Zadorenko and provided similar information.
Russian sources including Russian state-run RIA Novosti attributed the bombing to Ukrainian forces, accusing Ukraine of bombing “civilian objects, including at the point of issue of humanitarian aid,” resulting in the death of four civilians and the injury of at least two others. Quoting a “representative of the local provisional administration,” the Russian source reported that the shelling occurred around noon and involved 52 mm artillery guns. Discussing the victims, a local resident told RIA that a teenage girl was wounded when she was “returning home with their grandmother with food products. The grandmother was killed on the spot, the girl’s leg was torn off.”
This assessment corresponds to ACLED code UKR53666.
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention strikes in multiple locations in the town of Kozacha Lopan (Козача Лопань). Analysing audiovisual material from sources, we have narrowed these locations down to the following coordinates: 50.336013, 36.193996; 50.334438, 36.190772.
Tagged visual material from sources
Imagery: Zvezda
Tagged visual material from sources
Imagery: Zvezda
Tagged visual material from sources
Imagery: First Kharkov
Tagged visual material from sources
Imagery: First Kharkov