\n As investigators surveyed the damage in a bombed-out block of buildings in Saltivka, on the outskirts of the eastern city of Kharkiv, residents gathered around them.\n<\/p>\n
\n They were dispatched to decide if this attack constituted a war crime: some of the locals were hoping in vain for a quick answer as to who might compensate them for their devastated homes.\n<\/p>\n
\n While the investigators were not able to provide clarity on that issue, they nevertheless took note of the immense destruction around them.\n<\/p>\n
\n Floor by floor, they went through the building, accompanied by its former residents.\n<\/p>\n
\n Seventy-year-old Mykola Tymchenko's flat was a complete ruin after a fire started by a Russian strike swept through it: furniture, bedding, decorations, all reduced to ashes.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The kitchen was here,\" he said. \"The bathroom and the toilet were here.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I lost my wife before New Year. Now I've lost my flat,\" he added. \"I took years to pay for it and in one moment...\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Can't live here any more' -\n<\/p>\n
\n In the neighbouring stairwell, the damage was less visible.\n<\/p>\n
\n One flat belonging to Oleksandr Ryabokon, 30, had had its windows blown out by the force of a Russian strike, glass and bits of wall scattered all over.\n<\/p>\n
\n Having got his wife and children to safety, he was now gathering up their affairs in bags to keep out of the hands of \"thieves and looters\", he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n One of the recovered treasures was a painting of his great-grandmother wrapped in a film of plastic to keep out the dust.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It's impossible to live here,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n He did not yet know whether the building would be patched up or condemned as beyond repair and demolished. He did not know if he would be compensated.\n<\/p>\n
\n He did have hopes, however, that the authorities would allocate him new housing.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Assessing the damage -\n<\/p>\n
\n At the top of the building, meanwhile, the investigators continued to take stock.\n<\/p>\n
\n They inspected a gaping hole in a wall and the remains of a projectile.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"An expert will decide what type of shell it was,\" said 33-year-old Oleksandr Glebov, one of the Kharkiv investigators from the prosecutor's office.\n<\/p>\n
\n At the beginning of the invasion in late February, Russian troops got as close as the outskirts of Kharkiv -- including Saltivka -- before being pushed back by Ukrainian forces.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was at that point that many buildings here were hit.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since then, Russian forces have focussed their attacks elsewhere, but the artillery duel between the two sides has thundered on, shells falling regularly on this working-class district.\n<\/p>\n
\n Before the war, half-a-million people lived here. Most of them have since fled.\n<\/p>\n
\n Glebov explained how the prosecutors proceeded.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"During the investigation, we ask the victims the same question: 'Were there any military objectives next to your house?'\"\n<\/p>\n
\n At this stage, he added, he could not say for sure whether the Russians had been targeting civilians or whether it was just inaccurate fire, military error.\n<\/p>\n
\n His colleague, Oleksandr Arseni, had fewer doubts.\n<\/p>\n
\n The district bears the traces of hundreds of projectiles having fallen since the beginning of Russia's invasion.\n<\/p>\n
\n They had talked to the owners on every floor, he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"These are war crimes. We are recording them.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As investigators surveyed the damage in a bombed-out block of buildings in Saltivka, on the outskirts of the eastern city of Kharkiv, residents gathered around them. They were dispatched to decide if this attack constituted a war crime: some of the locals were hoping in vain for a quick answer as to who might compensate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-93159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n