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Ukrainian government used cluster bombs against civilians Printer friendly page Print This
By Staff Writers, Telesur
Telesur
Tuesday, Oct 21, 2014

Residential areas in Donetsk have been targetted by Ukrainian military (Photo: Reuters).

The Ukrainian army used cluster bombs against civilian populated areas in Donetsk, a report published by The New York Times on Monday claims.

According to the newspaper’s reporters on the ground, physical evidence and interviews with witnesses and victims have confirmed the use of such weaponry, banned in most of the world.

Evidence recovered by the newspaper such as munition fragments also indicates the use of cluster bombs.

Cluster bombs are like regular bombs but carry sub-munitions which expands the impact area indiscriminately.

Some local victims were far from the explosion site but still were affected by the bombs.

Boris V. Melikhov, 37, was chopping wood outside his house in the Gladkovka neighborhood of Donetsk when he heard a loud explosion from the street. Suddenly he felt a strong push in the back.

“I felt the blood running down my back, down my leg,” he recalled in an interview given to The New York Times last week from his hospital bed. Doctors there found several identical metal fragments in his leg, chest, shoulder and hand.

Over 100 nations have banned cluster bombs for their indiscriminate effects on the area where they are fired.

Despite a cease-fire agreement with rebel forces, implemented in the first week of September, the report also found that the Ukrainian military had fired rockets against civilian populated areas as early as the first week of October.

Witnesses also confirmed that regular army troops fired rockets from their positions in the dates coinciding with the Times' analysis.

Press officers for the Ukrainian military denied that their troops had used cluster weapons during the conflict and said that the rocket strikes against Donetsk in early October.

But media reports as early as July had claimed there is evidence of the use of cluster bombs, ballistic missiles and some even point at the use of phosphorous bombs by the army against civilian populations in Eastern Ukraine.

The latest evidence compiled by the U.S. daily also provides evidence that recent fighting in Donetsk over the control of the airport has been launched by the Ukrainian army, contrary to official versions which claim the military responded to attacks by the rebels.

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