Russia has attacked a Ukrainian city far from the front with cluster bombs for the first time. The Odessa seafront was hit by an Iskander ballistic missile with this multi-explosive munition on April 29. Five people died and more than 30 were injured. The invading army hit the Ukrainian capital of the Black Sea again on Tuesday night with three more Iskander missiles, causing the death of three people.
Both armies use cluster munitions, but until now they have been used in regions where fighting occurs. Russia has used these bombs before in urban areas, but they were close to the front. Nine people died in July 2023 in Liman municipality, Donetsk province, after a Russian cluster munition attack. Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch called for the incident to be investigated as a war crime. This type of weaponry is intended to cause destruction in large areas, being more effective in open spaces. Due to its lower accuracy and greater lethality in civilian areas, more than 100 countries have signed a treaty since 2008 that commits them not to use this ammunition. Neither Russia, Ukraine nor the United States – which has provided these bombs to Ukraine – have signed the treaty.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office published a video on Tuesday demonstrating the Russian use of cluster munitions in the urban area of Odessa. “Russia cynically ignores all norms of international humanitarian law,” said Attorney General Andriy Kostin. The video shows that the missile is targeting a marina in a leisure area in the city center, indicating that the invading forces could believe that military vessels were located at these facilities. Remains of explosives were found in a radius of 1.5 kilometers. An emblematic neo-Gothic building in Odessa, a university residence, was consumed by flames during the attack.
The first information about last night’s attack also pointed to a second bombardment with cluster munitions. A video spread on social networks offered the characteristic sound of multiple explosions of this type of weapon, but the Ukrainian army has not confirmed it. Ilia Yevlash, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, assured this Wednesday that the Russian objective is to provoke terror among citizens and destabilize society.
Yevlash has indicated that Odessa and Kharkiv are the two cities hardest hit this spring by invading troops. This military officer has also stressed that the only way to stop ballistic missiles like the Iskander is with more American Patriot anti-aircraft batteries. Both municipalities have been a special target of the current Russian offensive to destroy the Ukrainian electricity grid. A Russian bombing this Wednesday morning in Kharkiv has destroyed 10 homes, according to its mayor, Igor Terejov.
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Defense Express, a Ukrainian military analysis medium, has detailed that this is the first time that Russia uses Iskander missiles with cluster munitions during the invasion: “That the Russians have used this material in an area where there are only civilians is because they clearly hoped to provoke a high number of victims.” The precedent that Defense Express The use of Iskander armed with cluster bombs dates back to 2020, when the Armenian army—which had been a traditional ally of Russia—fired two of these missiles against Azerbaijani military positions in the Nagorno-Karabakh war.
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