Rights group warns Russia strike on Ukraine may constitute war crime – JURIST

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday warned that Russia’s attack on Kyiv, which utilized cluster munitions in a crowded residential area, may constitute a war crime under international law, citing the weapon’s indiscriminate nature and the high toll of civilian deaths it caused in violation of international humanitarian law.

In commenting on the latest attack, HRW Assistant Ukraine Researcher, Kseniya Kvitka, stated:

“Russia has once again fired an inherently indiscriminate weapon into a densely populated civilian area. There can be no justification for using cluster munitions near homes, schools, and hospitals, and it shows Russia’s utter disregard for civilians and the international law designed to protect them.”

HRW reported that Russia may have used cluster munitions in its August 5th attack on Kyiv which killed three civilians, and formed part of a wider strike on Kyiv which totaled 17 civilian causalities, and dozens injured.

Cluster munitions are “gravity bombs, artillery shells, and rockets that fragment into small bomblets or grenades.” The majority of reported cluster munitions casualties are civilians, and were used by at least 42 states throughout World War II.

In 2008, the Convention on Cluster Munitions was adopted and became binding international law. Under the treaty, “States Parties commit to never use, product, stockpile or transfer cluster munitions.” 112 States are party to the treaty, however,  Russia and Ukraine are among the 73 States that have not ratified the treaty.

Footage of the attack, posted on Telegram, shows fire in a residential area and simultaneous flashes of light and explosions. HRW stated that it analyzed the footage and determined that the attack was “less than a kilometer” from a hospital, and less than 500 meters east from “multiple high-rise residential buildings”.

HRW urged both countries to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and “commit to clearing unexploded cluster munitions in all areas under their effective control”. Attacks on civilians are prohibited under international law, namely the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949, and constitute war crimes.

Russia and Ukraine have had a long history of tension stemming from centuries of shared history, imperial domination, and Soviet rule, with the modern conflict erupting in 2014 when Russia had annexed Crimea and backed separatists in Donbas, before escalating into a full-scale invasion on the 24th of February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine to ‘de-militarize and de-nazify’ the country. In July 2026, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine highlighted that at least 437 civilians were killed in July 2026 alone, the highest number since May 2022.

A month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UN had reported that cluster munitions were used at least two dozen times in densely populated Ukrainian neighbourhoods, drawing condemnation from the international community.