Russia slams US for Kiev’s use of cluster bombs as journalist killed

Russia has blamed the US after an attack conducted by the Ukrainian military forces using Washington-supplied cluster munitions killed Russian military correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev and injured several other journalists.

“Rostislav died as a result of Ukrainian armed forces strike with cluster munitions,” the Russian Embassy in Washington said in a statement on Saturday.

The statement said civilians in residential areas had been targeted by Ukrainian forces, blaming the US for providing Kiev with the widely-banned cluster munitions.

Explainer: What are cluster bombs and why is US supplying them to Ukraine?

Ukraine has finally received the US-made cluster bombs, Pentagon confirmed on Thursday, in defiance of warnings that the dangerous munitions should not be provided to Kiev.

“Ukrainian radicals use these shells to hit cities and villages of our country, destroying homes of civilians. Kiev receives such weapons from the United States,” it added.

“American officials assured the world community that the Ukrainians would use these munitions ‘selectively and carefully.’ The nullity of these words is evident to everyone,” the statement said.

It further said the use of the cluster bombs against civilians demonstrated that Washington is “losing control over its puppets.”

Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry said Zhuravlev had been killed from injuries caused by a cluster submunition explosion during evacuation in a Ukrainian strike. It also said four journalists received wounds of varying degrees of severity.

According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Zhuravlev had been killed near the front-line village of Piatykhatky.

The Defense Ministry and local officials reported Ukraine had used cluster munitions in the area, targeting villages.

“In Belgorod district, 21 artillery shells and three cluster munitions from a multiple-launch rocket system were fired at the village of Zhuravlevka,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Friday.

Ukraine, which received cluster bombs from the United States this month, had pledged not to use them in residential areas.

‘Criminal terror’

Russian Foreign Ministry also denounced the Kiev regime for “continuing its practice of criminal terror.”

The killing of Zhuravlev was “a heinous, premeditated crime” Kiev committed deliberately, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.

“Everything indicates that the attack on the group of journalists was not carried out by chance,” Zakharova added.

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Ukraine

Zakharova said the US was a Kiev complicit for supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions and shared responsibility for those killed.

According to the ministry, “The journalists were gathering material for a report on the bombing by the Kiev regime militants of settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region using cluster munitions banned in many countries around the world.”

Cluster shells, bombs, and munitions contain dozens of small bomblets that rain shrapnel over a wide area and are banned in most countries due to the potential danger they pose to civilians.

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