Russia appears to be willing to bring several types of controversial weapons capable of creating mass casualties to the battlefield as it wages war in Ukraine, including nuclear weapons if events escalate.
Cluster bombs were used Friday in an attack that destroyed a preschool, as reported by Amnesty International, and thermobaric rockets were used Monday, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, said Monday.
The thermobaric weapons suck oxygen from the surrounding environment to create a fiery explosion and a large pressure wave. People who are hit by the blast, but far enough away to survive, are left with internal injuries such as ruptured eardrums, severe concussions, internal bleeding, and ruptured organs, according to a CIA report cited by the New York Post. The rockets were used by the U.S. in Vietnam to clear out parts of the Vietnamese jungle. It was also allegedly used by Russia in the war against Syria and against Chechnya, though Russia has denied both allegations.
Prior to their alleged use Monday, the only evidence of thermobaric rockets in the conflict was the appearance of a truck carrying a thermobaric rocket launcher, a TOS-1 heavy flamethrower, on the Ukraine-Russia border.
The russian army has deployed the TOS-1 heavy flamethrower which shoots thermobaric rockets, the was South of Belgorod. pic.twitter.com/XCxMI3bNB3
— Frederik Pleitgen (@fpleitgenCNN) February 26, 2022
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U.S. officials were unable to confirm the use of such weapons. “I would just tell you that we have seen inside Ukraine, and I’m not going to get more geographic than that, we’ve seen inside Ukraine, launchers that could be used for thermobaric weapons. I want to go back to what I said before — we have not seen, we cannot confirm that thermobaric weapons are actually in Ukraine, and we cannot confirm the use of thermobaric weapons. But we have seen inside Ukraine the kinds of launchers that could be used for those weapons,” a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Tuesday.
“They used the vacuum bomb today, which is actually prohibited by the Geneva Conventions,” Markarova said after briefing U.S. lawmakers, according to NBC News. “The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large.”
Cluster bombs are designed to inflict destruction across a large area by scattering smaller munitions. U.S. bombers dropped waves of cluster bombs during the Vietnam War across Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
In recent years, more than 100 countries have rallied behind the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits their production and use, though Russia and Ukraine are not among them, Amnesty International said. The group says it appears Russia used them in an attack that destroyed a preschool in the Ukrainian town of Okhtyrka on Friday, killing three civilians, including a child, and wounding another child.
“There is no possible justification for dropping cluster munitions in populated areas, let alone near a school,” said Agnes Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International. “This attack bears all the hallmarks of Russia’s use of this inherently indiscriminate and internationally banned weapon and shows flagrant disregard for civilian life.”
Despite being outmanned and outgunned, Ukraine has managed to stave off a slew of Russian offensives across the country, including in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Ukrainian and Western officials have reportedly expressed concerns that military setbacks could lead Russia to unleash a deadlier offensive in Ukraine with more soldiers and more indiscriminate weapons.
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Russia has even threatened the use of nuclear weapons ,and Putin placed his nuclear deterrent forces on alert on Sunday, a move that put European officials on edge.
Russia currently has more than 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons designed for use in the battlefield, significantly more than NATO or the U.S.’s 200 missiles. The Russian president has also alluded to using nuclear weapons several times if external forces attempt to help Ukraine beyond the supply of weapons.
Officials from Russia and Ukraine held negotiations Monday, but no immediate ceasefire agreement resulted from those talks. Both delegations agreed to hold a follow-up meeting within the next few days, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Russia has faced stiff backlash from the international community over its invasion of Ukraine, which began Thursday. Western nations around the world have slapped sanctions on Russia and barred Russian flights from their airspaces. A number of countries, including the United States, Poland, and Sweden, have announced plans to send additional lethal military aid to Ukraine to help repel Russian aggression.
