Geolocation
Airwars assessment
A collection of local news outlets reported that suspected Russian shells struck the village of Babai, killing one male civilian and wounding two other civilians on April 12, 2022.
Initial reports from Suspline Media and Helsinki Report detailed the strike, saying that the bombing occurred at 2pm, killing a thirty-seven year old man. The shelling also destroyed residential buildings, and a pre-trial investigation has been launched by the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, according to Ukrinform.ua.
24tv.ua spoke with the family that was affected by the shelling, who was able to escape the shelling, but the man that was killed received a shrapnel wound to the head. The source also provided witness testimony of the incident. A local resident said that “We sat at the table and ate. What a bang! My wife immediately started screaming, I calmed her down.” Another resident of Babai said that they heard a plane flying over the village and “Everyone heard how it buzzed, then it dropped something. There was a lot of smoke. Then the plane turned around when we were cleaning the glass. Maybe it was checking whether it had completed its mission,” the woman said.
The shelling had been taking place for several days, according to Suoi.net News. @antiputler tweeted that the Russians used cluster bombs, but this was not substantiated by other reports.
This incident has reference to ACLED code UKR55637.
The incident occured at approximately 2:00 pm local time.
Summary
Sources (16) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (10) [ collapse]
-
Damage caused by alleged Russian shelling of the village of Babai on April 12, 2022. (Image posted by the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office via Telegram)
-
Damage caused by alleged Russian shelling of the village of Babai on April 12, 2022. (Image posted by the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office via Telegram)
-
Damage caused by alleged Russian shelling of the village of Babai on April 12, 2022. (Image posted by the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office via Telegram)
-
Damage caused by alleged Russian shelling of the village of Babai on April 12, 2022. (Image posted by the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office via Telegram)
-
Damage caused by alleged Russian shelling of the village of Babai on April 12, 2022. (Image posted by the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office via Telegram)
-
Screenshot of Facebook post by Dmitry Krivobok
-
Screenshot of Facebook post by Igor Sazonov
-
Screenshot of Facebook post by Olga Zhurbenko
-
Screenshot of Facebook post by UAZMI - News of Ukraine
-
Screenshot of Facebook post by "Patriot of Donbass" newspaper
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Babai (Бабаї), for which the generic coordinates are: 49.898146, 36.192753. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.