Ukraine: Russian cluster munitions attack on Odessa harms civilians

(Kiev, May 29, 2024) – A recent Russian cluster munitions attack on Odessa, Ukraine, that killed seven civilians and injured dozens more underscores the urgent need for all countries to join the international treaty banning these weapons, Human Rights Watch said today.

“Russia’s cluster munitions attacks on Ukraine are a textbook example of the severe harm inflicted on civilians,” said Belkis Wille, deputy director for crisis, conflict, and arms issues at Human Rights Watch. “Many countries that have banned cluster munitions under the treaty have made great progress in destroying stockpiles and clearing explosive remnants, but the continued use of these weapons increases the risk to civilians everywhere.”

Sixteen years later, 124 countries have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions of 30 May 2008, but not Russia and Ukraine.

On April 29, 2024, a ballistic missile equipped with a cluster munition warhead scattered its payload of submunitions in and around one of the Odessa Law Academy’s building complexes on the waterfront. Ukrainian authorities reported that among the civilians killed was a four-year-old girl who died of her injuries three weeks after the attack. The detonations sparked a fire that destroyed the roof of the residence of the Law Academy’s president, who was injured in the attack.

Another 28 civilians were injured, including a pregnant woman and a child. Most of the victims were in a popular park in front of one of the academy’s buildings, which includes a boardwalk used by joggers, dog walkers and other civilians.

Cluster munitions are indiscriminate weapons that pose a predictable and long-lasting threat to civilians. Fired from artillery, rockets, missiles and aircraft, cluster munitions open in the air, dispersing multiple submunitions over an area the size of several city blocks. Many submunitions fail to explode on impact, leaving unexploded ordnance that, like landmines, can injure and kill for years until they are found and destroyed.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said that Russian forces carried out the attack using an Iskandar ballistic missile equipped with a cluster munition warhead. Dmytro Pletenchyk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, said he immediately visited the attack site and saw remnants of the missile and the explosive submunitions it contained. Each Iskander-M 9M723 series ballistic missile contains 54 9N730 multipurpose submunitions.

A surveillance camera video posted by Kostin on Facebook on April 30 and confirmed by Human Rights Watch, taken on the Odessa waterfront near the academy, shows at least 25 small explosions in less than six seconds, indicating the detonation of several submunitions from a cluster munitions attack.

Human Rights Watch reviewed six videos and photos of the attack and its aftermath posted on social media, including blood splatter and shrapnel damage from a detonation on the sidewalk, the fire at the law academy, and remnants of munitions from the attack. One photo shows production markings on a remnant of the rocket’s engine section that identify the weapon used as a 9M723 ballistic missile. Only Russia produces and stockpiles Iskander ballistic missiles equipped with cluster munitions warheads.

Denys Sebov, the director of Odessa City Clinical Hospital No. 10, told Human Rights Watch that 15 injured people were brought there after the attack, all with injuries from metal fragments. He said that a 40-year-old woman died on arrival from shrapnel injuries to her neck, lungs, and heart; a 30-year-old man died from head trauma; and another man died after surgeons removed two fragments from his head. Some survivors were transferred to other medical facilities for further surgery.

Russian missiles and drones regularly target Odessa’s port infrastructure. However, the site of the attack on April 29 is eight kilometers from the port and is not near military targets such as military buildings or supply depots.

Human Rights Watch has documented numerous Russian cluster munitions attacks that caused civilian casualties since the first day of the large-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. The cluster munitions attacks began in Vuhledar, followed by attacks in Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Kherson, and other cities. The Russian cluster munitions attack on the crowded Kramatorsk railway station on April 8, 2022, remains one of the deadliest incidents for civilians during the war.

The Ukrainian military has also used cluster munitions, including in the Izium area in 2022, resulting in numerous deaths and serious injuries among civilians, Human Rights Watch said.

Four rounds of US deliveries of cluster munitions to Ukraine since 2023 prompted the Convention’s member countries to urge US lawmakers and Civil society Groups that criticize the US actions. The US announced a fifth round on April 24. The US is also not a party to the Cluster Munitions Convention.

In September 2023, the Convention’s member states condemned “any use of cluster munitions by any actor” and expressed “deep concern at the significant increase in civilian casualties and humanitarian impact resulting from the repeated and well-documented use of cluster munitions since 2021,” particularly in Ukraine.

Russia, Ukraine and the United States should commit to not further endangering civilian lives through indiscriminate attacks. To do so, they must join the Convention on Cluster Munitions, destroy their stockpiles, clear areas contaminated with cluster munitions remnants and assist victims of these weapons. No country should transfer cluster munitions, as international norms prohibit any transfer of these weapons.

Russia and Ukraine should immediately compensate the victims and their families for loss of life and physical integrity, as well as for access to land use.

“The deaths and injuries among civilians caused by cluster munitions in Odessa will unfortunately not be the last time that civilians are harmed by these weapons,” said Wille. “International pressure is needed to end the use of cluster munitions not only in Ukraine but worldwide.”