Summary

Non-signatory Ukraine has acknowledged the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions but has not taken any steps to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Ukraine has participated as an observer in meetings of the convention, but not since 2014. It abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2021.

Ukraine possesses a stockpile of cluster munitions that it inherited from the former Soviet Union. Russia has used cluster munitions extensively since its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, while Ukrainian forces appear to have used cluster munitions at least two times during the conflict.

Policy

Ukraine has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Ukraine has acknowledged the deadly long-term consequences of cluster munitions, but has not taken any steps to accede to the convention.[1] Ukraine told the Monitor in 2010 and 2012 that it considered cluster munitions to be “legal weapons” and “an important component of Ukraine’s defense capabilities.”[2]

Ukraine has also expressed concern at its capacity to comply with the convention’s obligations, particularly the eight-year deadline to destroy stockpiled cluster munitions.[3]

Ukraine attended several meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and participated as an observer in the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[4]

Ukraine last participated as an observer in a meeting of the convention in 2014.[5] It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021.

In December 2021, Ukraine abstained from voting on a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urged states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[6] Ukraine has never explained why it has abstained from voting on the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Ukraine has voted in favor of UNGA and Human Rights Council resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[7]

Ukraine is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Production and transfer

In 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said that Ukraine has not produced cluster munitions and has not imported them.[8]

There is no evidence that cluster munitions have been included in the artillery and rocket systems, or among other weapons, that Ukraine has acquired since Russia began its invasion of the country in February 2022. The lack of cluster munition transfers to Ukraine reflects the growing stigmatization of these weapons and the fact that most North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states have either banned cluster munitions, or taken steps to align their policy and practice with the convention’s strict prohibition on the transfer of cluster munitions.[9]

Stockpiling and destruction

Ukraine inherited a large stockpile of cluster munitions after the break-up of the Soviet Union and shared information on the types stockpiled in 2011, as detailed in the following table.

Cluster munitions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine[10]

At that time, Ukraine reported that cluster munitions constituted 35% of its stocks of conventional weapons, which totaled two million tons of ammunition. Of the cluster munitions, 34% were produced before 1980, while 36% were produced between 1981 and 1992 and were “planned to be stockpiled and might be used.” The remaining 30% comprised of antivehicle landmines.[11]

Ukraine reported in 2011 that it destroyed approximately 10,000–20,000 tons of cluster munitions annually, and stated that it could take up to 60 years for it to destroy all stocks that were slated for destruction.[12]

Use

The Russian Armed Forces have used at least six types of cluster munitions in Ukraine since their invasion of the country began in February 2022.[13]

Ukrainian forces appear to have used cluster munitions at least two times during the conflict:

• Ukrainian forces used Uragan cluster munition rockets in an attack on Husarivka, Kharkiv region, on either 6 or 7 March, when the village was under Russian control;[14] and
• One civilian was injured by a missile carrying a cluster munition warhead in Yenakiieve, Donetsk region, on 22 March, which was under the control of Russian-affiliated armed groups at the time.[15]

Ukraine has not denied using cluster munitions during the 2022 conflict, but says that “the Armed Forces of Ukraine strictly adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law.”

Hundreds of Russian cluster munition attacks have been documented, reported, or alleged to have occurred in Ukraine in 2022. Many of these attacks have occurred in populated areas, including Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Sloviansk, and Vuhledar. At least ten of Ukraine’s 24 provinces (known as oblasts) have been struck by cluster munitions: Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia.[16]

The six types of cluster munitions used by Russia in Ukraine in 2022 were all manufactured in Russia—some as recently as in 2021—or by its predecessor state, the Soviet Union. These include:

• The 220mm 9M27K-series Uragan (“Hurricane”) cluster munition rocket, which has a range of 10–35km and delivers 30 9N235 or 9N210 fragmentation submunitions;
• The 300mm 9M55K-series Smerch (“Tornado”) cluster munition rocket, which has a range of 20–70km and delivers 72 9N235 or 9N210 fragmentation submunitions.
• The 300mm 9M54-series “Tornado-S” cluster munition guided missile, which delivers 552 3B30 dual-purpose 9M544 submunitions or 72 9M549 antipersonnel submunitions;
• The 9M79-series Tochka ballistic missile, which is equipped with the 9N123K warhead containing 50 9N24 fragmentation submunitions;
• A cluster munition variant of the Iskander-M 9M723 ballistic missile; and
• The RBK-500 PTAB-1M cluster bomb, containing 268 PTAB-1M high explosive/antitank submunitions.

Ukrainian officials have expressed grave concern over Russia’s use of cluster munitions in the conflict. Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, told a Security Council debate on 27 April 2022 that Russia’s use of cluster munitions in populated areas is proof that it “blatantly disregards international humanitarian law.”[17] Venediktova has described cluster munitions as “one of the most treacherous weapons, operating indiscriminately and causing superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering among civilians.”[18]

Russia’s use of cluster munitions in Ukraine has been condemned by at least 39 states in national or joint statements at UN bodies such as the Human Rights Council, Security Council, and UNGA, as of 1 July 2022.[19] The cluster munition attacks have also been condemned by the European Union (EU), the NATO Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Special Rapporteurs and Experts on human rights, and the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).

In March 2022, the current president of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the United Kingdom (UK), expressed grave concern at the use of cluster munitions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ambassador Aidan Liddle said he “calls upon all those that continue to use such weapons to cease immediately, and calls upon all states that have not yet done so to join the Convention without delay.”[20]

Previous use

Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed anti-government forces used cluster munitions in eastern Ukraine from July 2014 until ceasefire in February 2015, according to independent investigations conducted by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).[21] Both parties used two types of ground-fired cluster munitions: the 300mm 9M55K-series Smerch (“Tornado”) cluster munition rocket, containing 72 9N235 submunitions; and the 220mm 9M27K-series Uragan (“Hurricane”) cluster munition rocket, containing 30 9N235 or 9N210 submunitions.[22]

Neither party to the conflict accepted responsibility for using cluster munitions. Ukraine repeatedly denied use and attributed the attacks to pro-Russian separatist groups and members of the Russian Armed Forces.[23] Russia repeatedly drew attention to Ukraine’s use of cluster munitions but never acknowledged its role in the cluster munition attacks.[24]

The 2014–2015 cluster munition attacks in Ukraine attracted widespread media coverage, public outcry, and condemnations from at least 32 states and the EU.[25]

Previously, in 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that Ukraine did not intend to use cluster munitions, except to defend itself from “outside aggression.”[26]