The Ukrainian military has reportedly used cluster munitions in at least one of its attempts to retake a city that had been under Russian control.
Ukraine used cluster munitions, which can come in the form of rockets, bombs, missiles, mortar, and artillery shells, that split open in midair to dispense smaller bomblets over a larger area in the city of Husarivka in early March, according to the New York Times.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which went into effect in 2010, bars the use of cluster munitions as a result of the indiscriminate harm they can cause to civilians, but Ukraine, Russia, and the United States are not among the more than 100 nations to sign the pact. The Ukrainian military’s use of such weaponry demonstrates a desire to retake the country at any cost.
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Russian forces have also been accused of using such weapons at least two dozen times, Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said late last month. Reports of Russia’s use of cluster munitions have circulated since the country invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The New York Times’s report on the Ukrainian military’s use of a controversial weapon comes less than two weeks after the outlet confirmed a video showing Ukrainian forces shooting Russian prisoners of war. The video shows a Ukrainian soldier shooting a prisoner twice, causing the man to fall silent. Afterward, the person filming runs across the road, where there appear to be three other Russian soldiers also tied up and lying in pools of their blood, according to the outlet.
The Pentagon was not able to verify the video independently, though a senior U.S. defense official, when asked about it, said, “I would just tell you that we have been very clear both publicly and privately with the Ukrainians what our expectations are for the proper treatment of prisoners of war.”
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Russian forces have allegedly committed several atrocities throughout their now nearly two-month-long invasion of Ukraine. Last week, Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said it has begun investigating roughly 5,800 allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russian forces, and her office has 500 suspects they’re investigating, including “top politicians, top military, top propaganda agents of the Russian Federation,” she explained.
