Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

RUK147

Incident date

April 25, 2022

Location

Безруки, Bezruky, Kharkiv, Ukraine

Geolocation

50.17472311574266, 36.11798934018428 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Village level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

Three civilians, a woman and two men, local to the village of Bezruky were reported to have been killed and a further individual injured as a result of shelling allegedly by Russian service personnel on April 25, 2022. Villagers in conversation with Suspline News confirmed these casualties occurred around noon in light of shelling that had begun at 6 in the morning and continued until at least 4pm the same day.

It is unclear if the civilians were killed by the impact of the shelling or, as reported by @ICTV_fakly, by the fires caused by the attacks. An image posted by Suspline News which may detail the scene of the deaths details a collapsed building due to the shelling. The roof appears to have been completely demolished with debris littering the street outside; the building is part of a row of storefronts.

Local community chairman to Dergachiv, Vyacheslav Zadorenko, described the day’s events as “In the city of Dergachi and almost all settlements, they [Russian military] beat artillery, hailstones and mortars. Almost all over the community there are destroyed houses, they are burning now”. Widely reported by sources such as Hromadske news, TSN.ua, and Rayon the Russian forces had additionally hit gas pipes, leaving homes and businesses within 2500 yards of the impact without gas.

This assessment has reference to ACLED code UKR56477.

The incident occured around midday.

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Artillery
  • Civilian infrastructure
    Gas facility
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    3
  • (1 woman2 men)
  • Civilians reported injured
    1
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected attacker
    Russian Military

Sources (8) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]

  • Screenshot of Facebook post by Larisa Bodareva
  • Screenshot of Facebook post by Valentyna Ostashko

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention the village of village Bezruky (Безруки), for which the generic coordinates are: 50.17472311574266, 36.11798934018428. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

Russian Military Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Russian Military
  • Russian Military position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Artillery
  • Civilian infrastructure
    Gas facility
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    3
  • (1 woman2 men)
  • Civilians reported injured
    1
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected attacker
    Russian Military

Sources (8) [ collapse]