Mary Wareham, the advocacy director of the arms division at the HRW, said that the watchdog published a report on the situation in Izyum in January and saw "evidence that Ukraine was firing cluster ammunitions rockets into the area."
"We found that out after the Russians had left and our researchers went in to look at war crimes and atrocities that have been committed and they saw the remnants of cluster ammunition everywhere. They were told the direction of which they were fired from that we determined that it was separated forces who had used. And we've detailed evidence of civilians, had been killed or wounded in their homes outside their homes and the apartment building, in parks and other areas. So civilian harm there as well," Wareham said.
It's worth noting that cluster bombs are banned in accordance with the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) signed by as many as 123 nations. However, the use of cluster munitions is not strictly against the international law: to prove a war crime has been committed it needs to be determined whether the weapons were used directly against innocent civilians and have led to civilian casualties.
Cluster munitions
© Sputnik
Russia has repeatedly slammed Western supplies of cluster munitions to Ukraine, terming their us as inhumane and responsible for the death of journalists covering the Ukraine conflict.
Notably, Sputnik war correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev died in the zone of the special military op in July. His wounds resulted from the cluster munitions exploding.