LUGANSK, July 23. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops used foreign-made cluster munitions to shell the settlement of Zolotarevka in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), a spokesman for the local law enforcement agencies told TASS on Sunday.
"The enemy has begun to use foreign-made cluster munitions in the LPR. They hit the village of Zolotarevka. Data on casualties is being verified," he said.
On July 7, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the United States had decided to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite the fact that the United Nations opposed the use of such munitions. On July 13, US Army Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, Director of Operations of the US Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the Ukrainian armed forces had received cluster munitions from the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier that Moscow reserved the right to use cluster munitions in response to the use of such weapons by Ukraine.
Cluster bombs can contain hundreds of separate munitions. When detonated in the air, cluster munitions scatter bomblets over an area of dozens of square meters. If unexploded immediately, these bomblets remain lying on the ground, posing a threat to civilians long after the end of a conflict. Depending on the type of munitions, from 10 to 40% of bomblets do not explode. In recent decades, such bombs have been fitted with self-destruct devices, which activate within a few days after use, but around five percent of them do not go off and become mines.