Statement by the MFA of Ukraine on the Russian Federation's Systematic Use of Cluster Munitions During Its Aggression Against Ukraine
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
26 June 2025 16:39
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine draws the attention of the international community to the large-scale, deliberate, targeted, and systematic use of cluster munitions by Russia during its aggression against Ukraine.
Ukrainian competent authorities have already documented at least 5,974 cases of Russia's use of such munitions.
Russian occupying forces regularly launch missile and bomb strikes against Ukraine's Defense Forces and civilians using multiple launch rocket systems such as Smerch, Grad, Uragan, Tochka-U, and air-dropped bombs equipped with cluster munitions containing submunitions such as 9N210, 9N235, KOBE 3B-30, Q-16, KE 136B3, M42, ShOAB-0.5, and others.
Among the numerous documented cases, some stand out for their particular brutality: the killing of 22 people and injury of 31 in Chernihiv on March 17, 2022, following an MLRS Uragan strike; the attack on Kramatorsk on April 8, 2022, with a Tochka-U cluster missile that hit the railway station during the evacuation of civilians, resulting in 54 killed and 135 wounded; the missile strike on Kyiv on June 17, 2025, with a Kh-69 missile, after which 29 objects resembling cluster submunitions were discovered.
This is far from an exhaustive list of Ukrainian cities where the Russian Federation has used cluster munitions. Similar attacks have occurred in Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kherson, Chuhuiv, Dobropillia, Okhtyrka, Zatoka, as well as in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk oblasts, resulting in numerous civilian casualties, including children, and extensive destruction of residential, medical, educational, and critical infrastructure.
Russian perpetrators deliberately and systematically use cluster munitions to maximize civilian casualties and destruction. This is an element of Moscow's broader policy of terror against the Ukrainian people. The international community must also recognize that Russia is training its accomplices — Iran and North Korea — in these criminal methods of warfare.
Such actions by Russia constitute a flagrant violation of fundamental norms of international humanitarian law, particularly the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which defines intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives, as war crimes.
We emphasize that war crimes and crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations. Ukrainian competent authorities are documenting and opening criminal proceedings regarding these atrocities to ensure accountability for those responsible.
We call on partner states and international organizations to respond decisively and firmly to these Russian crimes, in a manner that reflects their unprecedented scale and cruelty.
An appropriate response to Russia's systematic use of indiscriminate weapons against civilians requires a substantial intensification of pressure on the aggressor.
We urge our partners to impose new, crippling sanctions against the Russian economy and industry, particularly its defense sector, energy revenues, banking system, and all individuals and legal entities that directly or indirectly facilitate the armed aggression against Ukraine.
We also call on allies to accelerate the supply of all types of air defense systems and ammunition, as well as to enhance Ukraine's long-range strike capabilities, and to invest in Ukraine's defense manufacturing. This will allow us to protect lives and save civilians.
Such strong and resolute steps are critically necessary to advance a just and lasting peace.
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