MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told a senior Red Cross official that Moscow was concerned about the use of incendiary weapons and ballistic missiles in the military operation in eastern Ukraine.
“Antonov stressed that Kiev’s so-called ‘anti-terrorist operation’, during which heavy artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems, ballistic missiles and aviation are being used indiscriminately, has led to numerous casualties among civilians and destroyed vital infrastructure. He also expressed serious concern about the use of inhumane types of weapons in residential areas, such as incendiary weapons and ballistic missiles with fragmentation warheads,” the ministry said, commenting on Antonov’s meeting with Laurent Corbaz, the Red Cross head of operations for Europe and Central Asia.
Since mid-April, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the southeastern regions of Ukraine that refused to recognize the legitimacy of its new government that came to power after a February coup. The fighting intensified after Donetsk and Luhansk regions proclaimed themselves independent people’s republics and involved armored vehicles, heavy artillery and attack aviation.
Last month, Russia also said it had evidence that Ukraine had used phosphorus bombs, which are banned by the Geneva Conventions, in populated areas in the country’s east. White phosphorus can cause injuries and death in three ways: by burning deep into tissue, by being inhaled as a smoke, and by being ingested. Extensive exposure by burning and ingestion is fatal.
Some 1,400 people have lost their lives in the operation, more than 4,000 injured and over 110,000 people have been forced to flee Ukraine’s war-torn southeast, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
