What are flechettes, a brutal weapon used in Ukraine?

RESIDENTS OF BUCHA, a town on the outskirts of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, report finding thousands of miniature darts embedded in buildings and cars. The metal projectiles, less than 3cm long and known as flechettes, from the French for “little arrows”, have a particularly brutal reputation and are unusual in modern warfare. Why is Russia using them?

The weapon hardly has an illustrious history. It was invented in Italy in the early 1900s and adopted by all sides during the first world war. The arrows were typically 12cm long with fins for stability and were dropped from aircraft in canisters of tens or hundreds. They were ineffective and superseded by explosive bombs.