(Kyiv, May 29, 2024) – A recent Russian cluster munition attack in Odessa, Ukraine, that killed seven civilians and injured dozens more, underscores the urgent need for all countries to adhere to the foreign treaty banning such weapons, Human Rights Watch said today.
“Russia’s cluster munition actions in Ukraine are an example of the grave harm inflicted on civilians,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis, conflict, and armaments director at Human Rights Watch. “There have been great strides in destroying their stockpiles and clearing explosive remnants, but the continued use of such weapons increases the threat to civilians everywhere. “
Sixteen years later, 124 countries have ratified the 30 May 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, including Russia and Ukraine.
On April 29, 2024, a ballistic missile equipped with a cluster munition warhead dispersed its submunition payload in and around one of the Odessa Law Academy’s facilities on Odessa’s waterfront. The Ukrainian government said a 4-year-old girl was killed among the civilians. , who died from his injuries 3 weeks after the attack. The blasts sparked a fire that destroyed the roof of the apartment of the president of the Legal Academy, who was wounded in the attack.
Another 28 civilians were injured, including a pregnant woman and a child. Most of those affected were in a popular outdoor park of one of the academy’s buildings, which includes a beachfront prom used by joggers, dog walkers and other civilians.
Cluster munitions are inherently indiscriminate weapons that pose a predictable and long-term danger to civilians. Launched through artillery, rockets, missiles, and aircraft, cluster munitions open up in the air to disperse submunitions across a domain spanning several city blocks. Many submunitions do not explode on impact, leaving debris that can injure and kill like landmines for years, until they are located and destroyed.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, said Russian forces carried out the attack with an Iskandar ballistic missile equipped with a cluster munition warhead. Ukrainian military spokesman Dmytro Pletenchyk said he promptly went to the site of the attack and observed the remains of the missile and explosive. submunitions that it carried. Each Iskander-M ballistic missile in the 9M723 series consists of 54 9N730 dual-purpose submunitions.
A security camera video of the attack posted on Facebook via Kostin on April 30 and verified by Human Rights Watch as taken on the Odessa waterfront near the academy shows at least 25 small explosions in less than six seconds, indicating the detonation of several submunitions. of a cluster munition attack.
Human Rights Watch verified six videos and photographs of the attack and its aftermath posted on social media, adding blood splatters and fragmentation damage caused by a detonation on the sidewalk, the chimney of the law academy, and remnants of ammunition from the attack. Production markings on a remainder of the missile’s engine section, identifying the weapon used as the 9M723 ballistic missile. Only Russia produces and markets Iskander ballistic missiles equipped with cluster munitions.
Denys Sebov, director of Odessa’s Municipal Clinical Hospital No. 10, told Huguy Rights Watch that 15 more people were taken there after the attack, all caused by steel fragments. He said that among those who were taken to the hospital, a 40-year-old man – the elderly woman died on arrival from fragmentation wounds to the neck, lungs and heart; a 30-year-old man died from head trauma; And another man died after surgeons removed two fragments from his head. Some survivors were transferred to other medical facilities for additional surgery.
Russian missiles and drones target Odessa’s port infrastructure. However, the site of the April 29 attack is 8 kilometers from the port and does not appear to be near any army targets, such as army buildings or fountain warehouses.
Human Rights Watch has documented Russian cluster munition attacks that have caused civilian casualties since the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Cluster munition attacks began in Vuhledar, followed by subsequent attacks in Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Kherson. and other cities. The Russian cluster munition attack on the busy Kramatorsk exercise station on April 8, 2022, remains one of the deadliest incidents for civilians during the war.
The Ukrainian military also used cluster munitions, which were added in the Izium region in 2022, causing many civilian deaths and serious injuries, Human Rights Watch said.
Four circulars on U. S. transfers of cluster munitions to Ukraine since 2023 have prompted conference member countries, U. S. lawmakers, and civil society teams to criticize U. S. actions. The United States announced a fifth circular on April 24. The United States is also a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
In September 2023, the conference’s member countries condemned “any use of cluster munitions by any actor” and expressed “grave concern about the significant accumulation of civilian casualties and humanitarian effects resulting from the repeated and well-documented use of cluster munitions. “ammunition since 2021. ” especially in Ukraine.
Russia, Ukraine, and the United States deserve all efforts to stop endangering civilian lives in indiscriminate attacks by acceding to the Convention on Cluster Munitions and destroying their stockpiles, clearing up areas infected by cluster munition remnants, and assisting victims of cluster munitions. No country deserves to move cluster munitions given the foreign norm prohibiting any movement of such weapons.
Russia and Ukraine deserve prompt compensation to sufferers and their families for loss of life or limb, or for access to land use.
“The deaths and injuries caused to civilians in Odessa by cluster munitions will unfortunately be the last time these weapons harm civilians,” Wille said. “All it takes is concerted foreign tension to end the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, but also around the world. “world. ”