Summary

Non-signatory Belarus acknowledges the humanitarian rationale of the Convention on Cluster Munitions but has not taken any steps to accede. It has never participated in a meeting of the convention. Belarus abstained from voting on a key annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting the convention in December 2022.

Belarus states that it has not produced cluster munitions, nor is it known to have used or exported them. It inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union but has not provided information on the types or quantities possessed.

Policy

The Republic of Belarus has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Belarus rarely comments on its position on joining the convention.[1] After the convention was adopted in 2008, Belarus stated that it “shares the humanitarian concerns” caused by cluster munitions but objected to the way the convention was negotiated outside United Nations (UN) auspices.[2]

Belarus did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and has never participated in a meeting of the convention.[3]

Belarus has abstained from voting on the annual UNGA resolution supporting the implementation and universalization of the convention, most recently in December 2022.[4] Belarus has never explained why it abstains from voting on the non-legally binding resolution.

Belarus is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty and completed the destruction of its stockpiled antipersonnel landmines in 2017.

Belarus is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and in the past has expressed a preference for cluster munitions to be addressed through this convention.

Use, production, and transfer

In 2010, Belarus stated, “Our country is not a producer of cluster munitions.”[5]

Despite that statement, since 2014, Belarus has developed and produced the Polonez multi-barrel rocket launcher to replace older systems. This launcher is based on the A200 launcher system of Chinese design and reportedly uses a variety of 300mm rockets, including a “fragmentation armour piercing cluster.”[6] According to the database of arms transfers maintained by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Belarus exported six Polonez launchers to Azerbaijan in 2018.[7] These weapons were used by Azerbaijan during the 2020 conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, but it is not known if cluster munition rockets were fired from these launchers.

Belarus reportedly received 9K720 Iskander-M short-range ballistic missiles from Russia in December 2022.^[8] The 9K720 and 9M723 variants of the missile can be configured to deliver cluster munitions. 

Belarus is not known to have used cluster munitions.

Stockpiling

Belarus inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union, but it has never provided public information on the types and quantities that it possesses.[9]

According to Jane’s Information Group, the Belarusian Air Force has RBK-500 series cluster bombs.[10] Belarus also possessed Grad 122mm, Uragan 220mm, and Smerch 300mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with cluster munition payloads.[11] This uncertainty extends further as Belarus has exported its older Grad (to Angola and Turkmenistan) and Uragan (to Angola) multi-barrel rocket launchers since 2010.[12]