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 last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2014. Ukraine abstained from voting on a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting the convention in December 2022.

Ukraine possesses a stockpile of cluster munitions that it inherited from the former Soviet Union and it may have acquired cluster munitions from elsewhere. Russia has used cluster munitions extensively since its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Ukrainian forces have used cluster munitions on several occasions during the conflict, causing civilian harm.

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] Ukraine told the Monitor in 2010 and 2012 that it considered cluster munitions to be “legal weapons” and “an important component of Ukraine’s defense capabilities.”[2]

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 at the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[4]

Ukraine last participated as an observer at a meeting of the convention in 2014.[5] Ukraine was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Tenth Meeting of States Parties held in Geneva in August–September 2022.

In December 2022, Ukraine abstained from voting on a key 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.[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]

Ukraine has publicly asked to be supplied with cluster munitions for use in its war against Russia, since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of the country.[9]

On 7 July 2023, the administration of President Joe Biden announced that an unspecified quantity of United States (US) stocks of cluster munitions, with a failure rate higher than 1%, would be transferred to Ukraine.[10] According to the US Department of Defense, “155mm artillery rounds” will be transferred, including ones that deliver what it called “highly effective and reliable” dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM).[11] US Department of Defense officials have claimed that the DPICM submunitions “have a dud rate less than 2.35 percent” but said the testing data behind this number is “classified.”[12]

It appears that the US will transfer 155mm M864 cluster munition artillery projectiles that each contain 72 DPICM submunitions, as well as 155mm M483A1 artillery projectiles that each contain 88 DPICM submunitions. The projectiles deliver M42 and M46 DPICM submunitions and historic data for these submunitions shows that they have a failure rate of 6–14%. The failure rate is often higher in operations due to wind, soft soil, dense vegetation, and other delivery factors.[13]

Ukraine’s Minister of Defence, Oleksii Reznikov, welcomed the US decision to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions in July 2023, which he said “will significantly help us to de-occupy our territories while saving the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers.”[14] Reznikov further outlined five “key principles which we [Ukraine] will abide by and which we have clearly communicated to all our partners, including the US.” These principles are summarized by the Monitor as: Ukraine will use cluster munitions on its own territory and not in Russia; Ukraine will not use cluster munitions “in urban areas (cities)” and will use them “only in the fields where there is a concentration of Russian military;” Ukraine will keep a strict record of its use of cluster munitions and “the local zones where they will be used;” areas where cluster munitions are used will be prioritized for demining; and Ukraine “will report to our partners about the use of…[cluster] munitions, and about their efficiency to ensure the appropriate standard of transparent reporting and control.

As of 17 July 2023, world leaders and officials from 19 countries had expressed concern over cluster munitions after the US decision to transfer its stocks to Ukraine. These states included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Lao PDR, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (UK). The US decision has received worldwide media coverage and has been criticized by US congressional representatives, United Nations (UN) spokespersons, and the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).

Cluster munitions may have been included in artillery and rocket systems, or among other weapons, that Ukraine has received from other states in 2022 and 2023. US officials have alleged that unnamed countries have supplied cluster munitions to Ukraine.[15]

Türkiye and Ukraine have both denied a January 2023 report which claimed Türkiye transferred cluster munitions to Ukraine in November 2022.[16] Also in January 2023, Estonian state media reported that Estonia was considering providing Ukraine with German-made 155mm DM632 cluster munition projectiles.[17] Such a transfer would require approval from the German government. In February 2023, Germany’s defense minister Boris Pistorius said that “Germany won’t authorize the transfer of cluster bombs to Ukraine.”[18]

Israeli-made or copied M971 120mm cluster munition mortar projectiles were photographed in the possession of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in December 2022.[19] Each M971 120mm mortar projectile delivers 24 M87 DPICM submunitions. Israel originally produced this type of cluster munition, but it is not known how or from whom Ukraine acquired it.

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[20]

At that time, Ukraine reported that cluster munitions constituted 35% of its stocks of conventional weapons, which totaled two million tons of ammunition. Of the cluster munition stocks possessed by Ukraine, 34% were produced before 1980, while 36% were produced in 1981–1992 and were “planned to be stockpiled and might be used.” The remaining 30% of the reported stocks comprised of antivehicle landmines.[21]

Ukraine reported in 2011 that it destroyed approximately 10,000–20,000 tons of cluster munitions annually, and stated that it could take up to 60 years for it to destroy all stocks that were slated for destruction.[22]

Use

The Russian Armed Forces have used cluster munitions extensively in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion of the country in February 2022, causing hundreds of civilian casualties, hitting civilian infrastructure, and contaminating agricultural land.[23]

Ukrainian forces also used cluster munitions on several occasions during 2022.

The New York Times first reported that Ukrainian forces used Uragan cluster munition rockets in an attack on Husarivka, in Kharkiv region, on either 6 or 7 March 2022, when the village was under Russian control.[24] Ukraine did not deny this use of cluster munitions, but said that “the Armed Forces of Ukraine strictly adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law.”

The Armed Forces of Ukraine reportedly used cluster munitions in attacks on Izium city, in Kharkiv region, between March and September 2022, when it was controlled by Russian forces, according to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine.[25] The commission provided three examples illustrating this use of cluster munitions in Izium city: an attack on 9 May on a residential area that killed three and injured six people; an attack on 14 July on the central market that injured two people; and an attack on 16 July on a residential area that killed two people.

In July 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) also reported on Ukraine’s cluster munition rocket attacks on Izium city and surrounding areas between April and September 2022, when Russian forces had controlled the areas.[26] HRW recorded at least eight civilians killed and 11 wounded in the attacks, and warned that the figures were “most likely…a fraction of the total” of civilian casualties suffered from Ukraine’s cluster munition use. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence rejected the findings shared by HRW, responding that “cluster munitions were not used within or around the city of Izium in 2022 when it was under Russian occupation.”[27]

At least 10 types of cluster munitions and three types of individual submunitions have been used in Ukraine since 24 February 2022. These types are all launched from the ground in missiles, rockets, and mortar projectiles; aside from the RBK-series cluster bomb, which is delivered by aircraft. With the exception of an Israeli-designed cluster munition, the cluster munitions used in Ukraine were manufactured either in the Soviet Union prior to 1991 or in Russia, some as recently as 2021.

Cluster munitions Used in Ukraine (2022–2023)

Ground-fired rockets and missiles

• The 220mm 9M27K-series Uragan (“Hurricane”) cluster munition rocket, which has a range of 10–35km and delivers 30 9N210 or 9N235 fragmentation submunitions;
• The 300mm 9M55K-series Smerch (“Tornado”) cluster munition rocket, which has a range of 20–70km and delivers 72 9N210 or 9N235 fragmentation submunitions;
• The 300mm 9M54-series “Tornado-S” cluster munition guided missile, which delivers 552 3B30 dual-purpose 9M544 submunitions or 72 9M549 antipersonnel submunitions;
• The 9M549 Tornado-S cluster munition guided missile, which delivers 72 9N235 fragmentation submunitions;
• The 9M79-series Tochka ballistic missile, which is equipped with the 9N123K warhead containing 50 9N24 fragmentation submunitions; and
• The Iskander-M 9M723K1 ballistic missile, which contains 54 9N730 dual-purpose submunitions.

Ground-fired artillery and mortar projectiles

• The 203mm 3-O-14 artillery projectile, each delivering 24 O-16 fragmentation submunitions;
• The 152mm 3-O-13 artillery projectile, each delivering eight O-16 fragmentation submunitions;
• The 3-O-8 240mm mortar projectile, each delivering O-10 fragmentation submunitions; and
• The M971 120mm mortar projectile, each containing 24 M87 dual-purpose submunitions.

Air-dropped bombs

• The RBK-500 PTAB-1M cluster bomb, containing 268 PTAB-1M high explosive/antitank submunitions;
• Individual ShOAB-0.5 fragmentation submunitions (photographed in the Donetsk region); and
• Individual PTAB-2.5 dual-purpose submunitions (photographed being modified for use in drone-dropped munitions).

The use of cluster munitions in Ukraine has been condemned by at least 40 states in national or joint statements at UN bodies such as the UNGA, the Human Rights Council, and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as of 1 July 2023.[28] The cluster munition attacks have also been condemned by the European Union (EU), the NATO Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Human Rights Special Rapporteurs and Experts, and the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).

In March 2022, the UK, then-president of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, expressed grave concern at the use of cluster munitions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ambassador Aidan Liddle, Permanent Representative of the UK to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, said he “calls upon all those that continue to use such weapons to cease immediately, and calls upon all states that have not yet done so to join the Convention without delay.”[29]

Previous Use

Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed anti-government forces used cluster munitions in eastern Ukraine from July 2014 until a ceasefire in February 2015, according to independent investigations conducted by HRW and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).[30] Both parties used two types of ground-fired cluster munitions: the 300mm 9M55K-series Smerch (“Tornado”) cluster munition rocket, containing 72 9N235 submunitions; and the 220mm 9M27K-series Uragan (“Hurricane”) cluster munition rocket, containing 30 9N235 or 9N210 submunitions.[31]

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.[32] Russia repeatedly drew attention to Ukraine’s use of cluster munitions but never acknowledged its role in the cluster munition attacks.[33]

The 2014–2015 cluster munition attacks in Ukraine attracted widespread media coverage, public outcry, and condemnations from at least 32 states and the EU.[34]

Previously, in 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that Ukraine did not intend to use cluster munitions, except to defend itself from “outside aggression.”[35]

Treaty and Voting Status (see profiles to the right)