Human Rights
Cluster bombs take heavy toll in Ukraine, pose lasting threat
Cluster munitions can be dropped from planes or fired from artillery, scattering bomblets over a wide area, but many fail to explode, effectively acting as land mines.
![A soldier from a Ukrainian mobile anti-aircraft brigade holds an unexploded Russian cluster bomb in Khmelnytsky province on July 8. [Florent Vergnes/AFP]](/gc6/images/2024/09/13/47581-clusterbombs_1-370_237.webp)
By Kontur and AFP |
GENEVA -- Since Russia began its invasion of its western neighbor in February 2022, Ukraine has registered the highest number of recorded annual cluster munition casualties in the world, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) said in its annual report, issued earlier this week.
It said the weapons had killed and wounded more than 1,000 people there since the war began.
The vast majority of casualties were registered in 2022 but the report said the figure for 2023 was probably a dramatic underestimate.
Cluster munitions can be dropped from planes or fired from artillery before exploding in mid-air and scattering bomblets over a wide area.
![A man walks past an unexploded tail section of a 300mm rocket that appeared to contain cluster bombs. The rocket was embedded in the ground after shelling in Lysychansk, Luhansk province, Ukraine, April 11, 2022. [Anatolii Stepanov/AFP]](/gc6/images/2024/09/13/47582-clusterbombs_2-370_237.webp)
They pose a lasting threat since many fail to explode on impact, effectively acting as land mines that can explode years later.
In Ukraine, more farmland is now contaminated by cluster munition remnants than by land mines, the report said.
Before the war, Ukraine had registered no cluster munition casualties for several years.
But it recorded 916 in 2022 and accounted for almost half the 219 casualties recorded worldwide last year.
The decrease in registered casualties between 2022 and 2023 "unfortunately may not really mean fewer people will suffer because of use in this period," said Loren Persi, director of the impact team on the project.
The team knew of "many" such attacks in Ukraine last year where no casualties were recorded but where casualties may very well have occurred, he remarked.