It has been almost completely destroyed by a shell. Bozhko and his wife hid in the basement as his home was shelled. In the village of Andriivka, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) west of Irpin, farmer Vadim Bozhko told CNN that he found flechettes scattered along the road leading to his house. Russian forces shot her as she cycled home. But other than that, they have been rarely used in modern warfare.Ī Ukrainian mother had plans to change her life this year. The United States used them during the Vietnam War and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs accused the Israeli military of using them against civilians in 2010 in Gaza, according to a report by the US State Department. They cause severe damage as they rip through the body, twisting and bending – and can be lethal.

When the shell detonates, several thousands of the projectiles are sprayed over a large area.įlechette shells are not banned, but their use in civilian areas is prohibited under humanitarian law, because of their indiscriminate nature. They are packed into shells that are fired by tanks. “You can’t take them out with your hands, you need to use pliers,” Klimashevskyi said, pointing to the wall dotted with the dark darts.Ĭalled flechettes – French for “little arrows” – these razor-sharp, inch-long projectiles are a brutal invention of World War I when the Allies used them to strike as many enemy soldiers as possible. More than a month after the Ukrainian army retook Irpin from the Russians, Volodymyr Klimashevskyi is still finding the little nail-like projectiles scattered around his garden and embedded deep in the walls of his house.

Brutal inventions