The strategic port city in southern Ukraine has been bombarded with suspected banned munitions and is bracing for a renewed Russian onslaught as Vladimir Putin repositions his forces, reports Bel Trew (..) Just moments earlier, a suspected cluster munitions attack had hit the busy residential area – tearing apart several cars. It left a deadly trail of remnants, and worried residents had called in assistance from people more experienced to dispose of the submunitions. Dima, a veteran seaman who previously served in eastern Ukraine and had planned to sign up to fight in this war, was one of those asked to help. Bent over a clutch of bomblets, the 41-year-old made a split-second judgement about whether any of them were still live and could be safely picked up. It was the wrong decision. One of the submunitions exploded in his left hand, blowing it to pieces. It chewed up both of his thighs and ripped open his chest. “I found a group by a wrecked car, and I thought they were all spent. I was wrong,” he tells The Independent three days later, still hooked up to a spider web of machines in the critical care unit of one of Mykolaiv’s hospitals. Despite being very ill, he insists he wants to speak. (…) Cluster munitions are banned by 110 countries worldwide including the UK because they are inherently indiscriminate and therefore a violation of international law. They release dozens if not hundreds of bomblets – carpeting an area that can cover a football pitch – and shred flesh, metal, and even walls. (…) “He lost most of his left hand, his upper legs were shredded like meat,” the ICU chief says as he walks around a ward packed with civilians being treated for multiple injuries from cluster munitions. One of the attacks hit a busy shopping district just a day earlier on 4 April. “We don’t know if he will be able to walk again, he needs new skin for his leg and months of treatment that we just don’t have here now,” Dr Dymtro adds. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), both Russia and Ukraine have stockpiled the Smerch and Uragan artillery rockets equipped with cluster munition warheads, and neither country has signed the international treaty banning the use of them.
via independent: ‘Legs shredded like meat’: Inside Mykolaiv, residents live in fear of Russian cluster bombs