Three schools opened fire, one of them with a large hole in the side of the building. Several rockets are raining down on panicked shoppers outside a supermarket. People passing through a park were forced to flee to safety as shells exploded around them.
These were some of the attacks that residents of Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv have faced in recent days, as Russian forces targeted residential areas, civilian infrastructure such as schools, shops, hospitals, apartment blocks and churches .
CNN has geolocated and verified 13 incidents involving civilians over the past three days, as attacks intensified on Kharkiv, a city of nearly 1.5 million people. After the resistance of Ukraine.
Most of the attacks took place in the residential area of Saltyvka in the northeastern part of Kharkiv. But other districts in the north-west, south-east and south-west of the city were also affected. An adviser to Ukraine's interior minister said the city's Freedom Square, the center of public life in Kharkiv, was believed to be a cruise missile.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service said Thursday morning that 34 civilians were killed and 285, including 10 children, were injured in the Kharkiv region in 24 hours.
As the Kharkiv invasion intensified, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague announced on Wednesday that it had launched an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky referred to Russia's relentless bombing of Kharkiv, including deliberate targeting of residential areas with "jet artillery", as a "war crime" in a late-night address on Monday.
CNN has analyzed and verified digital evidence, including videos and photographs, of several indiscriminate attacks in Kharkiv.
Three schools in the grip of shelling in a day
At least three schools in Kharkiv were hit by Russian military strikes on Tuesday, according to videos and photos posted on social media.
In one clip, a school in the northern Saltivka neighborhood is depicted with a blank hole in the wall, rubble scattered in the courtyard, and broken glass.
In the video, someone can be heard saying, "Kharkiv City School No. 17." It flew right here, everything is in ruins, everything has fallen, pieces of shell everywhere, everything is in smoke "
The other two schools killed in the shelling were a kilometer (about 0.6 miles) away in an industrial district in Kharkiv's southeastern region.
Schools have not been in session since the Russian invasion began.
Other schools were indirectly affected during Tuesday's bombings in the center of Kharkiv. Viktor Kruglov, the founder of a private school, Roanoke, said they managed to rescue about 54 orphans from a boarding school for blind and visually impaired children 15 minutes before the explosion.
However, 65 people are still hiding in the basement of the school - there is no electricity or water because of the shelling. According to Valentina Butenko, head of the non-governmental organization "Right to Choice" (Pravo Vyboru), they depend on food and water brought by volunteers.
The school is located 300 meters (about 985 ft) from the epicenter of the explosion in Freedom Square.
Hit the apartment block straight
On Tuesday, outside City Kharkiv Municipal Hospital No. 3, two apartment buildings were directly hit. The strikes also affected an office building.
In one video, a damaged apartment complex across the street from the hospital caught fire.
"The building is over," says someone in the video.
Another video showed children and family fleeing the apartment complex, with at least two bodies lying on the ground.
"...beasts, just animals," said someone, referring to those responsible for the military attacks. "People were driving here."
"A house," said another man, "look what they've done."
CNN could not identify any military targets in the area.
Other footage from the Saltivka neighborhood, which was shared in local media, showed a row of shops in front of an apartment building destroyed by the strikes. A nearby building also caught fire.
Dramatic incident caught on security camera
According to a CNN analysis, five residential areas of Kharkiv were affected on Monday.
Surveillance-style footage of an apartment complex on Velika Kiltseva Street captured panicked residents running for safety as rockets exploded all around them.
Some of the videos showing Russia's indiscriminate bombing of homes in Kharkiv today are too graphic to share here.
— Giancarlo Fiorella (@gianfiorella) February 28, 2022
This one, while not graphic, is haunting in its own right.
Residents walking through a park scramble for safety as cluster munitions explode around them. pic.twitter.com/qOnk5rYNel
The intense firefight - at least eight explosions are seen but more are heard - lasted 20 seconds. As it rains, people are seen running. A man is seen falling to the ground as there are explosions all around. The explosion occurred due to a direct collision with a parked car. After the hail of strikes has stopped, the one who fell appears to be crawling, but then stops moving. His condition is unknown to CNN.
Apartment complexes on Klochchivska Street in northwest Kharkiv and Vasilia Stusa Street in east Kharkiv were also affected on Monday.
Multiple-launch rocket system attack near supermarket
The Saltivka neighborhood was also hit by a multiple-launch rocket system or MLRS attack on Monday.
Video geolocated by CNN shows multiple rockets simultaneously detonating near Equator supermarkets, while shoppers scramble for safety.
A video shows a rocket booster placed in the sidewalk of a road, which is seen by some people.
According to Kharkiv city council, a female civilian was killed in that shelling, and 31 were injured. The city council said in a press statement that the wounded included 15 soldiers and 16 civilians. CNN cannot independently verify these numbers.
Dan Caszetta, a defense expert and an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London, said the images were consistent with more than one rocket launch system attack.
"The presence of at least one image of the rocket booster section provides evidence that this is a rocket attack," he said.
Commenting on that attack, Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, said: "Kharkiv has just suffered a massive Grad shelling! Dozens of victims."