KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia fired cluster munitions at Ukrainian energy facilities in its massive attack Thursday as Vladimir Putin said that the air attack was Moscow’s response to Ukraine’s attacks with UK and US-supplied weapons last week.
Cluster munitions can be dropped from planes or fired from artillery and missiles, exploding mid-air and scattering bomblets over a wide area. Experts say both Kyiv and Moscow have used them in the almost three-year war.
“In several regions, strikes with cluster munitions were recorded, and they targeted civilian infrastructure,” Zelensky said on social media.
Cluster munitions have killed or injured over 1,000 people in Ukraine since Russia launched its war in February 2022, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) said in its annual report in September.
They also pose a long-term risk since many fail to explode on impact, effectively acting as landmines that can explode years later, the CMC noted.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine is among the 112 states that are party to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the use, transfer, production and storage of cluster bombs.
The United States, also not a party to the treaty, had agreed to transfer cluster munitions to Kyiv in July 2023, a move that was criticised even by the two countries’ allies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the air attack against Ukraine was Moscow’s “response” to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with Western missiles.
Putin has previously railed at Ukraine’s allies granting permission for Kyiv to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets on Russian territory, warning of retaliation.
“We carried out a comprehensive strike,” Putin said during a Kazakhstan visit several hours after the attack.
“It was a response to continued attacks on our territory by (US) ATACMS missiles,” he said in the televised remarks as reported by AFP.
Last week, Ukraine used UK and US weapons to strike Russian territory for the first time since the war started in February 2022. In recent days it has prompted retaliatory strikes from Russia.
Putin said Russia launched more than 90 missiles and 100 drones, saying that 117 targets had been hit — the type of detail that the president rarely gives.
Putin claimed Russia knew how many long-range weapons were given to Kyiv and “where they are”.
He said Russia was “forced to test” its new Oreshnik ballistic missile on Ukraine last week.
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Putin said Russian armed forces were choosing targets to hit in Ukraine, including “decision-making centres in Kyiv”.
He said Kyiv had tried to strike “buildings of state importance in Saint Petersburg and Moscow” throughout the conflict.
The co-ordinated assault unfolded over several hours with waves of drones and missiles flying across the length and breadth of Ukraine – the second attack of its kind this month.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said cluster munitions were used specifically against civilian and energy infrastructure.
Last Wednesday Ukraine launched UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles at targets in Russia’s Kursk region.
In its response, Russia deployed a new type of missile – “Oreshnik” – to strike the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
