Two children were among three people killed as a result of cluster shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Monday, a local military official said Tuesday.
“Yet another tragedy happened yesterday,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration said in an interview on Ukrainian TV. “A Smerch MLRS cluster munition exploded over a water body,” he said.
The victims were an 11-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy and a 28-year-old man, Kyrylenko said.
Six people were also wounded, he said in a Telegram post with a link to his TV interview.
“The mother of the deceased boy is in serious condition, she was evacuated to the neighbouring region,” Kyrylenko said. “The enemy is using cluster munitions against civilians. I urge parents with children to evacuate.”
Some context: Cluster munitions indiscriminately scatter “bomblets” across large areas, posing such a threat to civilians that key US allies have outlawed its use in warfare. Russia is known to have deployed them throughout its invasion of Ukraine, and Ukrainian troops are now using US-provided cluster munitions.