DISINFO: Russia never used cluster munitions in Ukraine
SUMMARY
Neither Russia, nor the United States, nor Ukraine have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions. At the same time Russia, realising the dangers this type munitions pose to civilians, has refrained and continues to refrain from using them in the course of the special military operation in Ukraine.
RESPONSE
The claim advances a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative concerning Russia's illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The claim is false. On 25 February 2022, just one day into the invasion, the Russian military launched a ballistic missile equipped with a 9N123K cluster munition warhead on a hospital in Donetsk Oblast, killing 4 people and injuring a further 10, according to an independent inquiry by Human Rights Watch.
By 30 March 2022, Russia had launched cluster munitions on Ukraine at least 24 times, according to then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
Perhaps the most disturbing confirmed case of Russia's use of this weapon type in Ukraine to date has been the 8 April 2022 attack on a train station in the Ukraine-controlled city of Kramatorsk, which killed at least 58 civilians.