GENEVA: Cluster munitions have killed or injured more than 1,200 civilians in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.
The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) revealed these figures in its annual report, describing “troubling setbacks” in global efforts to eradicate the weapons. Ukraine has registered the highest number of recorded annual cluster munition casualties worldwide since the conflict expanded.
Russia has used the widely-banned weapons extensively since the first day of the war according to the monitor. Ukraine has also used cluster munitions and faces Russian accusations of deploying them inside Russian territory.
At least 193 cluster munition casualties were recorded in Ukraine in 2024 out of 314 globally. More than 1,200 such casualties have been registered in Ukraine since the start of the war with most occurring in 2022.
The report stressed that this figure is a dramatic underestimate due to incomplete data. Ukraine suffered around 40 cluster munition attacks last year alone where casualty numbers were not provided.
Cluster munitions can be dropped from planes or fired from artillery before exploding in mid-air and scattering bomblets. They pose a lasting threat since many fail to explode on impact acting as landmines for years. Neither Russia nor Ukraine are among the 112 states party to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The convention prohibits the use transfer production and storage of cluster bombs. The only other countries where cluster munition attacks were registered last year were Myanmar and Syria.
The United States sparked outcry with its 2023 decision to transfer cluster munitions to Kyiv. America has since transferred the weapons to Ukraine in at least seven separate shipments according to CMC.
Submunitions with Korean language markings have been found in Ukrainian-controlled territory this year. The report said it remained unclear if North Korean forces used them or if Russia acquired them from North Korea.
CMC warned of troubling setbacks threatening efforts to establish new international norms against cluster munitions. Lithuania became the first country to withdraw from the treaty in March 2025 citing regional security concerns.
Lithuania along with Poland Latvia Estonia and Finland also said they would quit the treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. Tamar Gabelnick head of the Cluster Munition Coalition decried Lithuania’s departure as undermining international law. She warned states should be extremely wary of a wider domino effect following these decisions. – AFP
