Human Rights Watch (HRW), a human rights organization that wants to ban cluster bombs, says it is convinced that cluster bombs were used in the Russian invasion. Amnesty says a Russian cluster bomb fell on a daycare, killing two adults and one child.
The use of cluster bombs is highly controversial. A large part of the projectiles do not explode. If someone later touches or picks up the explosives, they can still explode. In the 2006 Lebanon War, 40 percent of the Israeli cluster munitions. As a result, tens of thousands of explosives were scattered throughout the country.
Ukraine and Russia did not sign treaty
After this war, the call to curb cluster munitions grew stronger. In Oslo, dozens of countries signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions. This treaty is intended to counter the use, transport and sale of cluster munitions.
123 countries have signed the treaty and the treaty is in force in 110 of those countries. The Netherlands was one of the first signatories. Both Russia and Ukraine have not signed the treaty.
Incidentally, Ukraine itself also used cluster munitions in 2014, according to human rights organizations. In 2014 concluded Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the military has used these bombs in the Donetsk area. According to HRW, there were twelve incidents in which at least six people were killed. Ukraine has always denied these reports.
Also used a vacuum bomb?
A vacuum bomb was also used on Monday, the Ukrainian ambassador to the US said. These are powerful bombs that use oxygen from the environment to create a very heavy explosion. A shock wave is then released that lasts longer than with normal bombs. The explosion sucks the air away from a radius of about 200 meters. Anyone near the impact could suffocate.
No evidence has yet been found whether this bomb was used and whether the ambassador’s claim is correct.
According to international criminal law researcher Marieke de Hoon, the use of such a bomb is a violation of the law of war. she explained in good morning Netherlands† According to the law of war, violence may only be used against military targets. De Hoon: “The problem is that everyone in the neighborhood also dies.” Because the bomb does not distinguish between soldiers and civilians, the use of the vacuum bomb is in principle a war crime, said former commander of Land Forces Mart de Kruif in the same broadcast.
Several countries have used vacuum bombs in the past. The US has deployed them in Afghanistan to take out fighters in underground bunkers. Russia has bombs of this type deployed in the second Chechen war in 1999.
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