Physical evidence of war crimes and aesthetic accessories. What happens to the missiles used by Russians to hit Kharkiv
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Russians have been trying to capture Kharkiv. The city was shelled with various types of weapons, from multiple rocket launchers like Grad and Uragan to ballistic and cruise missiles from ships and aircraft.
hromadske visited the “cemetery” of shells used by the Russians to shell Kharkiv and the workshop of Kharkiv-based designer Oleksii Kaplaukh, who gives new life to the fragments of Russian ammunition.
“Cemetery” of war crimes
“These are the remains of Kh-101, Kh-55, and Iskander cruise missiles. Here is a wing from a Kh-55, the one with a green shell is an Iskander. 9M727 is a model, and its nomenclature number is next to it,” says Dmytro Chubenko, a spokesperson for the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, pointing to a pile of twisted metal fragments in an open-air “cemetery” for Russian missiles.
Weeds and burdocks are growing among the shell fragments, and wild grapes are climbing the fence. One of the fragments of ammunition bears the inscription “No support allowed”, and green microcircuits peek out from under the debris.
“Inside the missiles, there are boards like this that allow them to hit targets at specified coordinates,” Chubenko shows. “Some [missiles] hit according to GPS coordinates, while others are controlled by people during the flight.”
Russian ammunition in this area was accumulated in the spring and first half of summer last year. The occupiers fired them only at Kharkiv – most of all at the beginning of the full-scale invasion and in the spring, dozens of times a day.
“This is the largest place of storage of material evidence of war crimes, with an area of about 10,000 square meters,” says Chubenko. “There are more than 1,000 [remnants of ammunition] here, about half of which was used to hit Kharkiv.”
The “cemetery” consists primarily of remnants from shells of various types of multiple-launch rocket systems.
“These are Grad elements designed to hit. After the missile explodes, they fly apart and injure people around them,” theprosecutor's office spokesperson points to the details of one of the shells.
In general, there are four main [types of MLRS]. The biggest ones are Smerchs, they are 300 mm [caliber]. Slightly smaller, similar to them are Uragans. Then there are Tornados, which are more technologically advanced and fly further. And the smallest ones are Grads.”
The MLRS missiles that are available here are mostly Soviet-made from the 1970s and 1980s, and they are easy to maintain, so Russia uses them frequently. Cruise missiles were created in Russia in the 1990s and 2000s, they are more technologically advanced and powerful.
“The Russians have already used up a lot of old weapons, so they are using newer types of weapons,” Chubenko comments.
The location is guarded, and according to the prosecutor's office, there has been no attempt to break in. The remains of shells here are structured by type, but not by the location of a particular shelling. However, some of them are marked with the numbers of criminal proceedings.
“After each shelling, experts inspect the scene, record the victims, the dead, and the destruction, document the GPS coordinates of the missile hit and, if known, the side from which it struck. All of this is attached to the criminal proceedings,” explains the prosecutor's office spokesperson.
“There is no need to link a specific munition, such as the Uragan, to the scene of the incident, as all weapons are standardized.
During the inspection of the scene, explosive experts provide preliminary information about the type of shell, and then the remains are sent for examination. After that, the experts prepare a document on the exact type of weapon used during the shelling.”
Technical parts of ammunition are seized for examination by the Main Intelligence Directorate, the Ministry of Defense, the Security Service of Ukraine, and other technical specialists. They are being examined to determine whether Russia is using foreign technology and equipment to limit Russians in this regard.
In the future, the prosecutor's office says, all the wreckage should become material evidence for the International Criminal Court and a special military tribunal.
“These remains have already been examined by international experts and representatives of the International Criminal Court,” explains Chubenko. “But they will be further used after the tribunal is established and, if necessary, they will conduct their own research and reviews.
It is important to record the affiliation with Russian weapons, as certain types are only on Russia's balance sheet. For example, cruise missiles and certain modified types of MLRS, which Russia improved after the collapse of the USSR, are only available to them. And this provides a very good evidence base of Russian involvement in these war crimes.”
Creation through destruction
While hundreds of used Russian munitions await the International Criminal Court in a “cemetery”, designer Oleksii Kaplaukh turns such fragments into aesthetic accessories.
Before the full-scale invasion, Kaplauch worked as a graphic designer at a well-known Kharkiv restaurant. He returned to his hometown last May and immediately joined the volunteer headquarters that was organized by the restaurant.
On May 28, it was one year since Oleksii moved into the former restaurant. He calls this place his studio.
“They used to cook delicious, expensive food here, but now they cut missiles,” he smiles, showing us his workshop in the former kitchen.
Initially, Oleksii and his volunteer headquarters team prepared and delivered food in Kharkiv and the region.
“We went to Malynivka, Pechenihy, Tsyrkuny, Slatyne (villages in Kharkiv Oblast near the then-front line - ed.),” he says, making coffee. “In late June, we came under mortar fire in Slatyne, and a ‘zucchini’ mine fell 10 meters from our car.”
It was during that trip that Kaplauch realized that Russian missiles could be revitalized.
“When we left Slatyne, in the next village, Prudiantsi, I saw a Grad shell sticking out of the ground in a field,” the master recalls. “It must have fallen at the beginning of the war, and some kind of plant grew there. These visual images began to accumulate in my head, and at some point, it just had to come out somewhere.”
However, Oleksii began to implement the idea only in September, after the Kharkiv counteroffensive by the Ukrainian army, when the volunteer headquarters closed.
“During this period, we collected fragments of shells and missiles – some in Northern Saltovka, some outside the city,” Kaplaukh says. “And when we closed the headquarters and put things in order here, I got a box with all this stuff, with scrap metal. I put a Grad shank on the bar. I didn't like it, it looked disgusting. But its shape reminded me of a vase. So I came up with the idea to make it into a vessel.”
At the end of September, Oleksii was planning to move to Kyiv – his friends invited him to work. But during his trip on the Intercity train, the designer received a call from journalists who had seen his vase on Instagram and asked for permission to publish it in their publication.
“I said, ‘No problem’,” he recalls. “It motivated me, in particular [to continue doing it]. There were some shell fragments left here. I started to imagine what else I could make with them.”
Kaplauch calls his style war realism, and he applies his own approach and methods to each object. He receives raw materials for his future products from volunteers and the military and finds some himself.
“Everything starts with drawings for me because I'm an engineer by profession, I graduated from Polytechnic Institute, and I like this style and graphics,” he says.
From September to the present, Oleksii has made more than 15 items from the fragments of Russian ammunition. Among them are vases made from the remains of MLRS shells, candlesticks (made from a “zucchini” mine that fell near them during a mortar attack in Slatyne and an Igla man-portable air defense system), and a Grad shell floor lamp.
“Here's a missile floor lamp – I got this Grad shell from the house it destroyed,” Kaplauch points to the tall lamp. “I have an idea to try to sell it at auction for serious money and rebuild the same house.”
For the author, each object is symbolic. For example, he dedicated a table lamp from the Uragan shell to those who died during the shelling in his native district of KhTZ. A banner with the name of the neighborhood is now hanging on the balcony of the restaurant's second floor; Oleksii made it back in 2018.
“On April 15 [2022], a shell hit KhTZ, and eight people died, including a seven-month-old baby,” Kaplauch recalls. I dedicated this lamp from Uragan to them. Let the light emitted by this sh*t that took their lives remain in the memory of these people.”
A table lamp made of a helmet with several holes in it attracts special attention. It was given to Oleksii in September by a friend who had once received this gift from the guys from Kraken. The craftsman decided to combine the helmet with a part from a Grad shell. All the work took about a month. Kaplaukh calls this product “the devil”.
“This is a helmet of a dead Russian, it was cut from different sides by shrapnel, it hit the frontal lobe – in Circuny, I think,” he says. “I had this helmet and a Grad stabilizer. And I immediately came up with the idea of a lamp. It's metal, it should shine.”
Kaplauch also made a series of felt-tip pens from anti-tank shells, a pencil from a shell, rings from an Uragan cassette, and a bracelet from shell fragments. He sold the markers as a souvenir, then realized that they could be useful in the war.
"A fellow paramedic texted: ‘I need a felt-tip pen’. I made him one, and he said: ‘This is a useful thing, it really helps.’ It's a working tool, like a machine gun,” Kaplauch says. “I picked up special markers for it – they write on any surface, even wet ones.
After my friend started using this felt-tip pen, he asked for a case because it was uncomfortable to hold. So we printed a holster [on a 3D printer]. Americans came to visit, saw it, and said: ‘Even our army doesn't have something like this’.”
Oleksii says that he is motivated by the desire to create, and people's reactions to his work vary from admiration to misunderstanding.
“I have a desire to create, but right now I'm creating from the things that are destroying,” he explains. “Some people see pride in this, others see beauty, and some people are affected by the whole spectrum of feelings, from the most disgusting to the most beautiful. Some people even think I'm a katsap because I saw Russian missiles and helmets, not Ukrainian ones.”
“What is the point of shelling them if they are invincible?”
Currently, Oleksii Kaplaukh is working on several artifacts. In the corner of his workshop are tubes from an RPG, and on the floor are the frames of two shells.
“It will be one large-scale project of two Uragan missiles, and the RPG is already in the design phase,” he says and turns his gaze to the two objects on the metal surface of the kitchen table.
"Just yesterday I finished two vases [made of Grad]. My friends are working with the International Legion in Kharkiv, and we want to sell one of these vases at a charity auction in Kyiv and transfer the proceeds to the needs of the legion.”
On the wall above the kitchen table are various drawings. Oleksii has already implemented some of these projects and is still planning others. In particular, he dreams of creating a Heroes' Alley in Kharkiv.
“I would like to make an alley of glory for the Heroes, Kharkiv residents, military men who died,” Kaplauch says. “[To install] S-300 missiles because they are big, or just tall missiles, make them into lanterns, like in parks. And at the end [of the alley], there will be some kind of installation.
I would really like to work with the S-300 because it is symbolic for Kharkiv – the Russians have been throwing these missiles at us all year. I found a piece of an S-300 at my countryside house that was just sticking out of the ground, but it's impossible to remove it.
Iskander will also work fine, I looked at the drawings and researched this shit. If they give me a piece of Iskander (among the raw materials in Kaplauch's workshop there is a piece of Iskander - ed.) I would show the Russians [what this missile can be turned into]. And they would say: ‘They're already building houses with these missiles, so what's the point of shelling them if they're invincible?”
Kaplauch plans to show his collection of products first at the Kharkiv Center for Contemporary Art, then take them around Ukraine and later abroad.
Editor-in-Chief Khrystyna Kotsira will share the best materials of hromadske every two weeks
ПідписатисяAuthor: Dmytro Kuzubov