[UPDATE May 2022: A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report documents Russian forces' use of cluster munitions in attacks across Ukraine. At least six types of cluster munition has been used by Russia since the beginning of its invasion in February 2022. Evidence indicates that Ukraine has used them at least once.]

Summary

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 2020.

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 last participated as an observer in a meeting of the convention in 2014.[5] It was invited, but did not attend, the first part of the convention’s Second Review Conference held virtually in November 2020.

In December 2020, 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]

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:[13]

• 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.

Neither party to the conflict accepted responsibility for using cluster munitions. Ukraine repeatedly denied use and attributed the attacks to pro-Russian separatist groups and members of the Russian armed forces.[14] Russia repeatedly drew attention to Ukraine’s use of cluster munitions but never acknowledged 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]