MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova cast doubt on Ukraine’s promises to the United States that it will report on the use of cluster munitions.

Earlier, Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov posted on Twitter the five principles of how the munitions would be used, claiming that Kiev would allegedly "keep a log of the use of these weapons and the local areas where they will be used and will report to partners on the use of munitions."

"Who is he telling this? Record keeping and reporting is not about Ukraine under the current Kiev regime," Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.

Reznikov also said that Ukrainian troops would allegedly use munitions against "only those territories that they believe to be their own, and will not use them in urban conditions."

On July 7, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the United States has decided to send Ukraine cluster munitions, even as the United Nations opposes the use of them. He also said that Kiev has provided Washington with written assurances that those weapons will be used in a way that minimizes risks to civilians. Pentagon Spokesman Patrick Ryder said on Thursday that the United States is poised to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions that pose the least risk to civilians.

Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary General Farhan Haq said earlier, commenting on media reports that the US plans to supply such munitions to Ukraine, that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres supports the Convention on Cluster Munitions and is against the use of such weapons on the battlefield.

Cluster munitions

A cluster bomb, or a cluster munition, can contain hundreds of explosive submunitions. When a cluster munition detonates in the air, submunitions can be left scattered on an area of tens of square meters. If some of them fail to function immediately but land on the ground without exploding, these submunitions pose a threat to civilians long after a conflict has ended. The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions has been joined by 111 countries so far, while another 12 nations have signed but not yet ratified it.

According to Human Rights Watch, the dud rate of cluster munitions is usually much higher than the declared level, and that leads to civilian casualties.