Despite saying Ukraine using cluster munitions is a “crime” — and vowing to retaliate if Kyiv uses the ones recently supplied by the US — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces have been using the controversial weapons throughout the course of the war, Ukraine and the United Nations have said.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office has launched a number of investigations on Russia’s use of cluster bombs since the very beginning of the war.
Here’s what those probes and reports from international organizations have revealed so far:
Ukrainian claims: In a statement on March 27, 2022, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Russia has used cluster munitions on civilian targets in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, and that the regional prosecutor’s office has launched “criminal proceedings over violation of the laws and customs of war.”
According to the investigation, Russian armed forces made the prohibited artillery shelling with a multiple rocket launcher system, targeting a settlement in the region’s Kryvyi Rih district, the prosecutor’s office said in a post on Telegram.
“The missile was equipped with prohibited cluster munitions. In the course of the inspection of the scene, law enforcement officers and explosives experts discovered and seized fragments of the rocket,” it added.
In a Telegram message posted on May 11, the Zaporizhzhia region military administration said Russian forces “massively attacked (the town of) Malokaterynivka with multiple rocket launchers, where 8 people were injured by cluster munitions.” Three of those wounded were ambulance workers who were responding to a call.
CNN is not able to independently verify the Ukrainian claims.
Reports from outside organizations: Cluster munitions have been used on civilian targets in the northeastern Kharkiv region as well, a CNN investigation from last year found.
The report documented how a Russian general who oversaw atrocities in Syria led the cluster bombings on Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The UN and affiliated organizations have also published reports on the issue.
In a statement published March 30, 2022, the UN rights chief at the time, Michelle Bachelet, said credible reports indicated Russia had already used cluster munitions in populated areas of Ukraine “at least two dozen times,” just over a month after the invasion was launched.
In a report published on August 25, 2022, the UN-partnered Cluster Munition Monitor civil society group said Russian forces had “repeatedly” used cluster munitions since the start of the war.
Ukraine’s own use of the weapons: The same report by the Cluster Munition Monitor group found that Ukrainian forces had also used cluster munitions “several times” and “mostly” in populated areas.
Ukraine has acknowledged its previous use of the weapons, saying it was using the bombs to defend its territory from a war launched by Russia.
Ukrainian and US officials have said the cluster munitions provided by the US won’t be used in heavily populated areas, even if those areas are occupied by Russian forces, and that Kyiv will make efforts to sweep areas it bombs with the munitions for unexploded ordnance.
Cluster munitions have killed at least 215 civilians and injured 474 people overall since the start of the war, according to the monitoring group’s report.
CNN’s Uliana Pavlova contributed reporting to this post.
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