LONDON (Reuters) – White brightly burning munitions had been proven cascading down on the Azovstal steel works within the Ukrainian port metropolis of Mariupol in what a British navy knowledgeable mentioned regarded like both an assault with phosphorus or incendiary weapons.
Reuters was not in a position to instantly establish the kind of munitions getting used or when the video was taken. It was posted on Sunday on the Telegram messaging software by Alexander Khodakovsky, a commander of the pro-Russian self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk.
“If you did not know what it’s and for what goal – you would say that it is even lovely,” Khodakovsky mentioned in a message beside the video. Khodakovsky couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
It was not instantly clear which forces had fired the munitions, or from the place.
Russian forces have pummeled Mariupol for practically two months, however some Ukrainian fighters stay holed up within the huge Soviet-era plant based beneath Josef Stalin and designed with a labyrinth of bunkers and tunnels to face up to assault.
Russia has not commented on what particular weapons it has used to assault the plant. The Russian defence ministry didn’t reply to a written request for remark concerning the video.
Ukraine’s armed forces declined speedy remark.
White phosphorus munitions can be utilized on battlefields to make smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets or burn bunkers and buildings. White phosphorus just isn’t banned as a chemical weapon beneath worldwide conventions.
Human rights teams have urged a ban on the usage of phosphorus munitions due to the extreme burns they trigger. The United States used phosphorus munitions within the Vietnam conflict and the 2003-2011 Iraq conflict. Russia used them within the Chechen wars.
Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to Mariupol’s mayor, mentioned that Russia had used incendiary or phosphorous bombs on Azovstal. Andryushchenko was talking from Ukrainian-controlled territory. Reuters was unable to instantly confirm his feedback.
Hamish Stephen de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer of Britain’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, mentioned it regarded very like phosphorus within the video, however solely a pattern may give absolute affirmation.
“It does look very very similar to white phosphorus rockets or artillery shells that are exploding simply above the bottom or upon the bottom,” he instructed Reuters.
“It may presumably be Russian incendiary rockets as nicely however I’ve definitely seen a whole lot of white phosphorus in notably Syria and it appears very very similar to that to me,” he mentioned.
While some Ukrainian fighters are nonetheless in bunkers on the steel plant, civilians have been evacuated.
(Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth in Kyiv; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by David Clarke)
