Ukraine

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 23 November 2020

Ten-Year Review: 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, and abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2019.

Ukraine possesses a stockpile of cluster munitions that it inherited from the former Soviet Union. The armed forces of the government of Ukraine, and Russian-backed armed opposition groups, used cluster munitions in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces in 2014–2015. The government of Ukraine has repeatedly denied using cluster munitions.

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] In correspondence with the Monitor in 2010 and 2012, Ukraine said that it considered cluster munitions to be “legal weapons” and “an important component of Ukraine’s defense capabilities.”[2] However, the government has vehemently denied using cluster munitions in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014 and 2015 (see Use section below).

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 has participated as an observer in meetings of States Parties of the convention, but not since 2014.[5] Ukraine was invited, but did not attend, the convention’s Ninth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2019.

In December 2019, Ukraine abstained from voting on a key UN 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, most recently in June 2020.[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]

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[9]

 

Cluster munition type

Surface-to-surface rocket

220mm Uragan 9M27K

300mm Smerch 9M55K

Tochka-U (SS-21)

Aircraft dispenser

KMGU containing BFK-AO2.5, BFK-ODC, BFK-PTAB, BFK-AP cartridges of submunitions

Air-dropped bomb

RBK-500-375

RBK-500-AO

RBK-500-255

RBK-500-SP-B7

RBK-500-ZAB

RBK-250-275

RBK-250-ZAB

At that time, Ukraine reported that cluster munitions constituted 35% of its stocks of conventional weapons, which totaled two million tons of ammunition. Of these cluster munitions, 34% were produced before 1980, while another 36% were produced between 1981 and 1992 and were “ planned to be stockpiled and might be used.” The remaining 30% contained antivehicle landmines.[10]

Ukraine reported in 2011 that it destroyed approximately 10,000–20,000 tons of cluster munitions annually and said it could take 60 years for it to destroy stocks that are slated for destruction.[11]

Use

There has been no evidence or allegations of new use of cluster munitions in Ukraine since a February 2015 ceasefire.

Previous use

Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed anti-government forces used cluster munitions in eastern Ukraine between July 2014 and February 2015, according to independent investigations conducted by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring mission, and others.[12] Both parties used two types of ground-fired cluster munitions:

  • The 300mm 9M55K-series Smerch (“Tornado”) cluster munition rocket, which has a minimum range of 20km and a maximum range of 70km, and delivers 72 9N235 submunitions.
  • The 220mm 9M27K-series Uragan (“Hurricane”) cluster munition rocket, which has a range of 10–35km and delivers 30 9N235 submunitions or 30 9N210 submunitions.

The Smerch and Uragan cluster munition rockets are fired from dedicated multi-barrel launchers mounted on an eight-wheeled vehicle. The 9N210 and 9N235 fragmentation submunitions are designed to self-destruct a minute or two after being ejected from the rocket.[13] Yet a significant number of cluster munition rockets malfunctioned after launch and fell to the ground with their full payload intact, while submunitions often failed to self-destruct as designed.

Neither party to the conflict has accepted responsibility for using cluster munitions. Ukraine has repeatedly denied use and has attributed the attacks to pro-Russian separatist groups and members of the Russian armed forces.[14] Russia repeatedly drawn attention to Ukraine’s use of cluster munitions, but has never acknowledged or taken responsibility for its role in the cluster munition attacks.[15]

The 2014–2015 cluster munition attacks in Ukraine attracted widespread media coverage, public outcry, and condemnations from at least 32 states and the European Union.[16]

Previously, in 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said Ukraine did not intend to use cluster munitions except to defend itself from “outside aggression.”[17]

 


[1] Statement of Ukraine, Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Cluster Munitions, 8 April 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.

[2] Letter No. 4132/36-196-771 from Amb. Yuriy A. Sergeyev, Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN in Geneva, 23 April 2012; and Letter No. 181/017 from the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN in Geneva, 29 April 2010.

[3] In 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said that Ukraine’s “negative experience” with the destruction of its antipersonnel mine stockpiles under the Mine Ban Treaty was influencing how it views the Convention on Cluster Munitions. CMC meeting with Ruslan Nimchynskyi, Deputy Director-General, Directorate General for Armaments Control and Military Technical Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Vientiane, 11 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.

[4] For details on Ukraine’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 249–250.

[5] Ukraine participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010–2011, and 2014.

[6]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 74/62, 12 December 2019.

[7]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 74/169, 18 December 2019. Ukraine voted in favor of similar UNGA resolutions in 2013–2018. See also, “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” Human Rights Council Resolution 43/28, 22 June 2020.

[8] CMC meeting with Ruslan Nimchynskyi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Vientiane, 11 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.

[9] “Impact of the CCW Draft Protocol VI (current version) on Ukraine’s Defense Capability,” Geneva, 1 April 2011, slides 3–4. Presentation of Ukraine to the CCW-GGE on cluster munitions.

[10] “Impact of the CCW Draft Protocol VI (current version) on Ukraine’s Defense Capability,” Geneva, 1 April 2011, Slide 2. Presentation of Ukraine to the CCW-GGE on cluster munitions.

[11] Ibid.

[13] Because types of submunitions are identical in size, shape, and color, the only way to distinguish them is by their external markings and by measuring the size of the pre-formed fragments they contain.

[14] Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin acknowledged the “serious accusations…deserve the deepest investigation.” Letter from Pavlo Klimkin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, to the editor of The New York Times, 30 October 2014. See also, statement of Ukraine, OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation, Vienna, 29 October 2014; and statement of Ukraine, CCW Protocol IV Meeting, Geneva, 12 November 2014. Notes by the CMC. At the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2015, Ukraine continued to allege that “Russia-guided illegal armed groups” and members of the Russian armed forces carried out Uragan and Smerch rocket attacks in eastern Ukraine. See, statement of Ukraine, UNGA First Committee, New York, 13 October 2015.

[15] See, statement of Russia, OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation, Vienna, 10 December 2014.

[16] The following states condemned the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Burundi, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mauritania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Rwanda, Slovenia, Somalia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. At the First Review Conference in September 2015, States Parties adopted the Dubrovnik Declaration, which affirms: “We are deeply concerned by any and all allegations, reports or documented evidence of the use of cluster munitions, including in…Ukraine. We condemn any use of cluster munitions by any actor.” See, “The Dubrovnik declaration 2015: Spectemur agendo (judged by our actions),” Annex I to the Final Report of the Convention on Cluster Munitions First Review Conference, CCM/CONF/2015/7, Dubrovnik, 13 October 2015.

[17] CMC meeting with Ruslan Nimchynskyi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Vientiane, 11 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.