Responding to news that the US is to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine, Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Military, Security and Policing issues said:
“Amnesty International has long stressed that cluster munitions are inherently indiscriminate weapons which have caused untold harm to civilians across the world – in some cases decades after conflicts have ended.
“Russia’s war of aggression has brought profound suffering to the people of Ukraine. It is the humanitarian considerations, and concern for civilians in countries torn by war and its aftermath – which has driven 111 states, including many of Ukraine’s allies, to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions and ban the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of such weapons.”
“The Biden Administration’s plan to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine is a retrograde step, which undermines the considerable advances made by the international community in its attempts to protect civilians from such dangers both during and after armed conflicts.”
“Amnesty International urges the US government to reconsider, accede to the Convention, destroy its stockpiles, and cease all use.
Immediately following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Amnesty International condemned its actions as an act of aggression, which is a crime under international law. Amnesty International has also documented war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law committed in the course of Russia’s war on Ukraine, including extrajudicial killings of civilians by Russian forces, the commission of torture and other ill-treatment, abuse of prisoners of war, deliberate bombing of the theatre in Mariupol while used as a civilian shelter, and other war crimes. In particular, we have documented the unlawful use of cluster munitions by Russian forces in multiple cities in eastern Ukraine; some of these attacks constitute war crimes. We call on both sides to respect the laws of war, and to bring those responsible for violating them to account, in fair trial proceedings.
HRW: New Research Details Ukrainian Use of Widely Banned Weapon
Ukrainian forces have used cluster munitions that caused numerous deaths and serious injuries to civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. Russian forces have extensively used cluster munitions in Ukraine, killing many civilians and causing other serious civilian harm.
New Human Rights Watch research found that Ukrainian cluster munition rocket attacks on Russian-controlled areas in and around the city of Izium in eastern Ukraine during 2022 caused many casualties among Ukrainian civilians. Both countries should stop using these inherently indiscriminate weapons, and no country should supply cluster munitions because of their foreseeable danger to civilians.
“Cluster munitions used by Russia and Ukraine are killing civilians now and will continue to do so for many years,” said Mary Wareham, acting arms director at Human Rights Watch. “Both sides should immediately stop using them and not try to get more of these indiscriminate weapons.”
The US government is reportedly close to deciding whether to transfer stockpiled cluster munitions to Ukraine, which would require approval by President Joe Biden. Transferring these weapons would inevitably cause long-term suffering for civilians and undermine the international opprobrium of their use, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch visited Izium and nearby villages from September 19 to October 9, 2022, to investigate Russian abuses against Ukrainian civilians during the Russian occupation, including arbitrary detention, torture, and summary executions. Human Rights Watch interviewed over 100 people, including victims of abuses, witnesses, emergency services personnel, and health professionals. Almost all of them said that they had seen fragments from submunitions that had detonated around their homes during the Russian occupation.
Ukrainian cluster munition rocket attacks in the city of Izium in 2022 killed at least eight civilians and wounded 15 more, Human Rights Watch said. The attacks occurred in Izium and surrounding areas where Russian forces had arrived in March, seized control by early April, and remained in control until early September. A United Nations report also found that Ukrainian armed forces used cluster munitions in attacks on Izium between March and September 2022.
The total number of civilians killed and wounded in the cluster munition attacks that Human Rights Watch examined is most likely greater. Russian forces took many injured civilians to Russia for medical care and many had not returned when Human Rights Watch visited. An ambulance driver said he and his colleagues had regularly transported and treated civilians, including children, with cluster munition injuries during the Russian occupation. He estimated that he took at least one such case to the hospital every day.
Human Rights Watch examined photos taken by residents of 13 carrier sections or engines from Uragan cluster munition rockets that had struck Izium during the Russian occupation. Each 9M27K-series Uragan rocket has a range of 10 to 35 kilometers and delivers 30 submunitions. During the period investigated, Ukrainian frontline positions were always within that range. The position of carrier sections found still in the ground indicated that they came from the direction of Ukrainian positions.
On June 6, Human Rights Watch wrote to Ukraine’s defense minister with a summary of its findings, a request for a meeting, and several questions. On June 22, the Defense Ministry responded in writing, saying that “cluster munitions were not used within or around the city of Izium in 2022 when it was under Russian occupation.”
Under the Geneva Conventions of 1949, applicable to the armed conflict in Ukraine, all parties have an obligation to investigate and appropriately prosecute alleged war crimes by their forces or on their territory.
Ukraine has publicly asked to be supplied with cluster munitions. Several US lawmakers have called for the Unite States, which is not a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, to transfer stockpiled cluster munitions to the Ukrainian government. Under US arms export rules, the United States can only export cluster munitions that “after arming do not result in more than one percent unexploded ordnance across the range of intended operational environments.” This provision can be waived by the US president in exceptional circumstances to allow for transfers of cluster munitions with higher failure rates.
The cluster munitions that the United States is considering sending to Ukraine are more than 20 years old, scatter over a wide area, and have a notoriously high failure rate, meaning they could remain deadly for years. Their use in US combat operations in 1991 and 2003 in Iraq resulted in casualties among civilians and US military personnel.
For the transfer, Ukraine would have to agree that the cluster munitions “will only be used against clearly defined military targets and will not be used where civilians are known to be present or in areas normally inhabited by civilians.”
“The US government should not be providing cluster munitions to any country due to the foreseeable and lasting harm to civilians from these weapons,” Wareham said. “Transferring cluster munitions disregards the substantial danger they pose to civilians and undermines the global effort to ban them.”