On March 24th, Russian troops allegedly launched shells from the Black Sea, striking a residential area in Kharkiv, killing six people and wounding at least another 15.
According to 24 Channel News, Russian forces fired upon a civilian area in which already exhausted civilians had gathered for humanitarian aid. Tweets from various users, including @eoin_mc_Sweeney and @maria_avdv described a scene in which civilians were waiting in lines for food and water, and called the Russian strike a “war crime”. Kharkiv Regional Administrator Oleg Sinegubov was quoted as saying,”In Kharkiv, in the area of Akademika Pavlova Street, the Russians fired long-range weapons at the Novaya Poshta post, near which Kharkiv residents were receiving humanitarian aid. According to preliminary data, 6 civilians were killed, another 15 were injured, and they were hospitalized in medical facilities. The number of victims is being determined.” Suspilne News provided the highest casualty count that six civilians were killed and 17 others were wounded.
A vast array of photographic and video evidence exists that captured the strike, including local security cameras according to Twitter user @cliffordlevy. Kh.depo.ua and censor.net conducted interviews with local witnesses who confirmed the death of civilians, but were not certain of an exact number.
Glavred.info reported that later in the night and in the morning on March 25th, Russian forces shelling the airport and the Metro supermarket. leg Synegubov, the head of the Kharkiv OVA, stated that a total number of 54 shelling, including artillery shells and mortar shells from rocket firing systems hit Kharkiv.
The majority of the sources that reported on the incident attributed the strike to Russian forces. However, two sources, Perviy Kharkovskyi – presumably Ukrainian Telegram channel with a clear pro-Russian stance, and Kharkov Nash, a Ukrainian Telegram channel based in Kharkiv with local correspondents in the city, posted on Telegram speculation over who carried out the strike based on the type of weapon used – both stating that grad missiles are only used by Ukrainian forces, without directly accusing Ukraine of carrying out the attack. A tweet from @informatsia_obstanovka reported that rockets of the Uragan system with cluster elements carrying hundreds of pieces of debris were part of the attack and other source referred to “long range missiles” being launched from the Black Sea.
This incident has ACLED’s reference code: UKR54069 and Bellingcat’s reference code: CIV0533.