Update: 3 dead in Russian cluster munitions strike against Kostiantynivka.
The death toll of the Russian cluster munitions strike against Kostiantynivka in Donetsk Oblast rose to three, including two children, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said[1] on July 25. "Nine people were injured. Two people died.
But at 7:25 p.m., a terrible message was received that a girl born in 2011 had died today. (According to the latest information) three people died, including two children," the governor said on television. Russian forces fired cluster munitions against Kostiantynivka on July 24, using Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems. The injured victims included four children: girls aged 5, 11, and 12, and an 11-old-year boy.
According to the governor, the boy died shortly after the attack on July 24. The attack comes among increasingly frequent reports of Russian use of cluster munitions in eastern Ukraine. On July 23, Russian forces used[2] cluster munitions in a double-tap strike against an aid center in Chasiv Yar, another town in Donetsk Oblast.
The governor said the attack started a fire but no causalities were reported. Deutsche Welle cameraman Yevgeny Shilko was wounded[3] by Russian cluster munitions in the city of Druzhkivka on July 22. The attack also killed one Ukrainian soldier and injured several more people.
As the Ukrainian military deployed[4] U.S.-provided cluster munitions against Russian positions, the Kremlin uses its own arsenal against Ukrainian civilians in retaliation. Ukrainian officials and human rights groups have said that Russia has already indiscriminately used cluster munitions against civilian targets since last year.
Martin Fornusek
News Editor
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press.
He also volunteers as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukrainer.
Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.