Russia has killed hundreds of civilians in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv using indiscriminate shelling and widely-banned cluster munitions, according to new research by Amnesty International.

Amnesty said it had found evidence of Russian forces repeatedly using 9N210/9N235 cluster bombs, as well as “scatterable” munitions - rockets that eject smaller mines that explode later at timed intervals.

The BBC visited five separate impact sites in residential neighbourhoods in Kharkiv and saw evidence of a distinctive, symmetrical spalling effect associated with cluster munitions.

“Those impacts are from cluster munitions, it’s a classic signature”, - said Mark Hizney, a senior researcher in the arms division of Human Rights Watch, a campaign group. “And in one image you can see a remnant of a stabiliser fin from one of the submunitions”.