Reports of a Russian cruise missile blasting away the government headquarters building in Kharkiv’s Freedom Square are coming out of Ukraine on Tuesday. The nation’s second largest city lies on the eastern border.
Missile blast video
The missile detonation blast was captured on video as Vladimir Putin continues to thumb his nose at international humanitarian law.
Long known as ruthless and cunning, he doesn’t mind killing civilians or destroying civilian infrastructure if a target is on his list. An objective is an objective and generals don’t win wars by being nice.
The Kremlin was hoping that the invasion would all be over by now but patriotic Ukrainians are putting up more resistance than expected.
Putin decided to target large cities with one missile after another for a while, just to soften things up. This morning’s target was the Kharkiv administration building.
Russia is waging war in violation of international humanitarian law. Kills civilians, destroys civilian infrastructure. Russiaʼs main target is large cities that now fired at by its missiles.
📍Kharkiv, Administration building pic.twitter.com/BJgyNnDp1h
— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) March 1, 2022
President Zelensky has refused all offers to evacuate, despite specific and credible death threats. He’s in this to the bitter end. During his briefing speech on Tuesday, March 1, Zelensky described the missile attack to Parliament. “Evil, armed with rockets, bombs and artillery, must be stopped immediately. Destroyed economically. We must show that humanity is able to protect themselves.”
The rocket “aimed at the central square of Kharkiv is an outright, undisguised terror. After that, Russia is a terrorist state. No one will forgive. No one will forget.”
Not playing fair
On top of killing at least one child in the Kharkiv missile attack, Russia keeps using banned weapons. That’s not fair. Cluster munitions were used to “indiscriminately shell civilian areas in Ukraine’s east.” Some call that a war crime.
They also say his use of illegal vacuum bombs breaks the Geneva convention. For instance, a shopping center in the Serpnia area of Kharkiv was “blanketed by explosions” in a way that strongly “showed ‘cluster‘ munitions had been used.”
⚡️ State Emergency Service: 6 people injured in central Kharkiv rocket strike, including one child.
The missile strike hit Kharkiv’s Freedom Square the morning of March 1, damaging the Kharkiv Oblast administration building.
Video: State Emergency Service pic.twitter.com/r7NePb4h5V
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 1, 2022
“The BM-21 Grad is a multiple launch rocket system used for ‘area denial‘, dropping cluster bombs on a concentrated area.” They’re generally used on “enemy troops before an offensive.”
Firing them at families is “not only a war crime but has only one purpose – to spread terror and alarm among the civilian population.” Along with that are super missile attacks.
A “vacuum bomb” is a “thermobaric weapon that is typically more devastating than traditional bombs,” Reuters reports, because “it absorbs the oxygen in a given space to cause a significant blast capable of vaporizing humans.” Put one of those on a missile and it’s devastating. As BBC explains, when it hits the target, a first explosive charge opens a container to widely scatter a “fuel mixture as a cloud.” A deadly one.
“This cloud can penetrate any building openings or defenses that are not totally sealed. A second charge then detonates the cloud, resulting in a huge fireball, a massive blast wave and a vacuum which sucks up all surrounding oxygen. The weapon can destroy reinforced buildings, equipment and kill or injure people.“
