Ukraine Bombed Residential Area With Cluster Munitions, Killing One Woman

SIMFEROPOL (Sputnik) — The Ukrainian Armed Forces three times shelled the town of Tokmak in Zaporozhye with cluster munitions, killing a civilian woman, the acting governor of the region, Yevgeny Balitsky, reported on his Telegram channel.

"Yesterday, the enemy launched three rocket attacks with cluster munitions on the residential area of Tokmak. As a result of the shelling, a private residential building caught fire and a woman was killed," he posted on social media.

Another local resident was injured and has been hospitalized.

Balitsky noted that the second missile was intercepted by air defense systems, and the third projectile did not explode, and will be safely disposed of by sappers.

Since March 2022, Tokmak has been under the control of Russian forces.

In July, US President Joe Biden announced the White House's decision to supply Kiev with cluster munitions. Commenting on the supplies, Russian President Vladimir Putin recalled that previous US administrations had called such actions criminal. According to him, "this is how it should be treated."

The peculiarity of these munitions is the lack of self-destruct mechanisms. According to the US military, between 5 and 14 percent of these munitions may not detonate at all due to prolonged storage. In this case, they function as mines and pose a threat to civilians even after the conflict is over.