Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv by indiscriminate Russian shelling using widely banned cluster munitions and inherently inaccurate rockets which constitutes a war crime, Amnesty International said in its report.

"During an extensive investigation, Amnesty International found evidence of Russian forces repeatedly using 9N210/9N235 cluster munitions as well as scatterable mines, both of which are subject to international treaty bans because of their indiscriminate effects," a press release by Amnesty International reads.

Amnesty International researchers investigated 41 strikes (which killed at least 62 people and injured at least 196) and interviewed 160 people in Kharkiv over 14 days in April and May, including survivors of attacks, relatives of victims, witnesses, and doctors who treated the injured. The organization’s researchers collected and analysed material evidence from strike locations, notably munitions fragments, as well as an array of digital materials.

"People have been killed in their homes and in the streets, in playgrounds and in cemeteries, while queuing for humanitarian aid, or shopping for food and medicine. The repeated use of widely banned cluster munitions is shocking, and a further indication of utter disregard for civilian lives," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser.

She stressed that the Russian forces responsible for these horrific attacks must be held accountable for their actions, and victims and their families must receive full reparations.

According to the director of the Medical Department at the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, 606 civilians had been killed and 1,248 injured in Kharkiv region since the conflict began. Most of the strikes investigated by Amnesty International inflicted multiple casualties over widespread areas.

"While Russia is not a party to either the Convention on Cluster Munitions or the Convention on Anti-Personnel Mines, international humanitarian law prohibits indiscriminate attacks, and the use of weapons that are indiscriminate by nature. Launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in death or injury to civilians, or damage to civilian objects, constitutes war crimes," the organisation stressed.