Russia has repeatedly used cluster munitions — a type of weapon that drops explosives indiscriminately on a wide area — in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, according to a new report by Amnesty International.
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“Russian forces have caused widespread death and destruction,” the group said, “by relentlessly bombarding” residential areas in the city, which is Ukraine’s second largest.
Cluster munitions involve a spinning projectile that scatters small bomblets across a wide area. They can leave behind dud bomblets that pose a threat even after an attack.
“The people of Kharkiv have faced a relentless barrage of indiscriminate attacks in recent months, which killed and injured hundreds of civilians,” said Donatella Rovera, senior crisis response adviser at Amnesty International. The group documented 28 “indiscriminate strikes” on Kharkiv between Feb. 28 and April 30.
The report included investigations into instances of attacks that left large numbers of civilians dead, such as one that sent shrapnel flying across a playground and its vicinity, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 35. Another strike killed at least six and injured 15 when cluster munitions struck a parking lot where people were waiting in line for aid.
The group noted that although Russia was not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an agreement by more than 100 nations not to use or store the weapons, international law “prohibits indiscriminate attacks, and the use of weapons that are indiscriminate by nature,” saying that such attacks amounted to war crimes.
The Kremlin has denied that the Russian military has used cluster munitions during the invasion.
Human Rights Watch has also noted Russia’s use of the weapons, saying they have caused “immediate and long-term civilian harm and suffering.”
Source: WP
