DISINFO: Russia never used cluster bombs in Ukraine becasue of humanitarian concerns
SUMMARY
Russia has not used any cluster munitions, but the situation may soon change because Kyiv uses them extensively and actively. There are humanitarian concerns with the decision of the United States to supply cluster munitions to Kyiv. The use of cluster bombs was said to be a war crime. Today Washington and its accomplices are committing this crime in Ukraine. Until now, for humanitarian reasons, Russia has refrained from using them. However, this decision can be reconsidered.
RESPONSE
Recurrent denial of military acts and war crimes by Moscow with the aim of deterring further military support to Kyiv.
The use of cluster munitions by Russian forces on Ukrainian territory has been documented since 2014 including in civilian areas. The media Vox shows for instance an attack on a residential area of Kharkiv near a water pump by a cluster bomb on 28 February 2022 killed four civilians and injured many others. A Month after the start of the full scale invasion of Ukraine the UN counted 24 instances of use of cluster munitions in populated areas.
Russia has used at least six types of cluster munitions in Ukraine during 2022:
- 220mm 9M27K-series Uragan (“Hurricane”) cluster munition rockets, which have a range of 10–35km and deliver 30 9N235 or 9N210 fragmentation submunitions;
- 300mm 9M55K-series Smerch (“Tornado”) cluster munition rockets, which have a range of 20–70km and deliver 72 9N235 or 9N210 fragmentation submunitions;
- 300mm 9M54-series “Tornado-S” cluster munition guided missiles, which deliver 552 3B30 dual-purpose submunitions (9M544 model) or 72 antipersonnel submunitions (9M549 model);
- 9M79-series Tochka ballistic missiles, which are equipped with the 9N123K warhead containing 50 9N24 fragmentation submunitions;
- A cluster munition variant of the Iskander-M 9M723 ballistic missile;
- RBK-500 PTAB-1M cluster bombs, which contain 268 PTAB-1M high explosive antitank submunitions.
As of 1 July 2022, hundreds of cluster munition attacks by Russian forces have been documented, reported, or are alleged to have occurred in at least ten of Ukraine’s 24 provinces (or oblasts): Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia.
Perhaps the most disturbing confirmed case of Russia's use of this weapon type in Ukraine to date has been the 8 April 2022 attack on a train station in the Ukraine-controlled city of Kramatorsk, which killed at least 58 civilians.
Ukraine has not denied using cluster munitions in the 2022 conflict, but says that “the Armed Forces of Ukraine strictly adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law.”
In 2022 Russia did not deny using cluster munition, it only denied its misuse including war crimes despite the documented cases. In 2023 however, to denounce the US supply of cluster munitions judged appropriate in the current phase of the conflict by US administration, Russia now totally denies the use of such munition.
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