Ukraine Killed Izyum Residents with Cluster Munitions, Data Collected by HRW Shows

GENEVA (Sputnik) - Human Rights Watch (HRW) told Ria Novosti that it has collected evidence of killing of residents of Izyum as a result of Ukrainian shelling by cluster munitions in 2022.

Mary Wareham, the advocacy director of the arms division at the HRW, said that the watchdog published a report on the situation in Izyum in January and saw "evidence that Ukraine was firing cluster ammunitions rockets into the area."

"We found that out after the Russians had left and our researchers went in to look at war crimes and atrocities that have been committed and they saw the remnants of cluster ammunition everywhere. They were told the direction of which they were fired from that we determined that it was separated forces who had used. And we've detailed evidence of civilians, had been killed or wounded in their homes outside their homes and the apartment building, in parks and other areas. So civilian harm there as well," Wareham said.

Term cluster munitions refer to any kind of shell that opens in the air and releases a number of smaller explosives, called "bomblets" over a larger area.

When cluster bomblets scatter, they can maim and kill civilians and have high failure rates, with duds posing a danger for years to come after a conflict ends. Cluster munitions are banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which has been ratified by 123 countries.