Pathologists and coroners have been carrying out post mortems on bodies found in mass graves in the region north of Kyiv, occupied by Russian forces for many weeks after the invasion of February 24.
“We found several really thin, naillike objects in the bodies of men and women and so did others of my colleagues in the region,” according to Vladyslav Pirovskyi, a Ukrainian forensic doctor.
“It is very hard to find those in the body, they are too thin. The majority of these bodies come from the Bucha-Irpin region.”
Independent weapons experts who reviewed pictures of the metal arrows found in the bodies confirmed that they were fléchettes, an anti-personnel weapon, according to the Guardian.
According to a number of witnesses in Bucha, fléchette rounds were fired by Russian artillery a few days before they withdrew from the area at the end of March.
Svitlana Chmut, a resident of Bucha, told the Washington Post she had found several nails on her car.
‘Uncommon and rarely seen’ weapon
Although human rights groups have long sought a ban on fléchette shells, they are not prohibited under international law.
According to Neil Gibson, a weapons expert at the UK-based Fenix Insights group, who has reviewed the photos of the fléchettes found in Bucha, the metal darts came from a 122mm 3Sh1 artillery round, in use by Russian artillery.
Mr Gibson said fléchettes were an “uncommon and rarely seen projectile”.
In a Twitter post he said the weapon was the Russian equivalent of the US ‘Beehive’ series of anti-personnel projectiles, so-named because of the apparent buzzing of the darts as they flew through the air.
Major Volodymyr Fito, a spokesperson for Ukrainian land forces command, said the Ukrainian military does not use shells with fléchettes.