DISINFO: Russia refrains from using cluster munitions for humanitarian reasons
SUMMARY
The United States and its accomplices are committing a war crime by using cluster munitions in Ukraine. The Russian Army has so far refrained from using these weapons in Ukraine for humanitarian reasons, but it maybe forced to do so.
RESPONSE
The claim advances a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative concerning Russia's illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The claim is false. On 25 February 2022, just one day into the invasion, the Russian military launched a ballistic missile equipped with a 9N123K cluster munition warhead on a hospital in Donetsk Oblast, killing 4 people and injuring a further 10, according to an independent inquiry by Human Rights Watch.
By 30 March 2022, Russia had launched cluster munitions on Ukraine at least 24 times, according to then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
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.
See further cases on the weapons used during the war in Ukraine here.