(Previous Incident Code: RUK0164)

Two male civilians were killed in the village of Slatyno, Kharkiv Region by shelling in an attack suspected to have been carried out by Russian service personnel on a residential building in the early afternoon. Images shared online by the Ukrainian Independent Information Agency show a single story house to have been collapsed and destroyed by the shelling with fragments of the building littered across the surrounding land. No further information is known about the two men killed in this shelling at this time.

Though Russia has not claimed responsibility for the shelling, the attack has been widely reported by local twitter sources such as @black_cerber and @verkhovna_rada alongside news organisations including Interfax and LB as of Russian origin. As a result, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office launched a pre-trial investigation into the violation of the laws and customs of war combined with premeditated murder, represented by Part 2, Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. This investigation was conducted by the local SBU Office.

The attack came at the same as Ukranian forces had claimed Slatyno and the neighbouring villages of Bezruky and Prudyanka as “liberated” from Russian occupation. During this time however, Mayor Zadorenko of the Derhachi District noted that there had been non-stop shelling of civilian objects.

This assessment has reference to ACLED code UKR71423.