WARNING STRONG IMAGES here is a video of RUSSIAN cluster bombs on CIVILIANS in Kharkiv, Ukraine in April 2022. https://www.la7.it/.../ucraina-bombe-a-grappolo-russe-su...
There are countless instances where Russia has used cluster bombs in densely populated areas of Ukraine, hitting kindergartens, power stations, markets and brutalising the Ukrainian people. More links at the bottom of this post, with videos and articles.
Why has the Italian debate blithely ignored cluster bombings of civilians, but wakes up now when it comes to their supply to Ukraine? Why is Vauro doing his nice little cartoon for il Fatto today and not a year ago?
It is clear that this debate is hetero-directed and that the various pundits involved in the issue of Ukrainian civilians DON'T give a damn.
In this post some context:
- russia has used cluster bombs ON CIVILIAN AREAS since the beginning of the war with hundreds of attacks and hundreds (> 200) civilian casualties, 58 in a single attack on a market in Kramatorks [https://www.hrw.org/.../cluster-munition-use-russia...](https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hrw.org%2Fnews%2F2023%2F05%2F29%2Fcluster-munition-use-russia-ukraine-war%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3t8o_YZqRan_7ieQWb4D6XmSGClc1ovDhjJENAfIy_DWX2b7YTA71eEyc&h=AT1Rf1sWvkOB8r4EsVM1ENVvHFXwOtXROkCkyVLL4-1cQMpD1JvLG8NBD9kQQWSZHvl_tDmYcvgnRPV5CmdSrO4G209TAPUAMaqD9KRYEd16tqcSaxe1rtxo9LjQO9XBDQ&__tn__=R]-R&c[0]=AT3Cipz9pDpsa_Kl1BsT5JNVkDunrlp6WaYZX7IlZND5vOf4Aldx2iw6jX320fMaUS7fI0jpm6LCyqIsRKVNKPIAtTXPnHPYHjVn9llMaznoeIuY6b7kaq-xJXx7-5bBp4A1wzwx_YT_xcl5IDZtCKt0RLTQi0ZBz_lgxQNgGOddOd1jKg_jhH00a-GFtgqmCp4Cu0QZVIag...)
- Ukraine has also used them, but not on civilian areas, except in a dozen or so cases in Izium in the summer of 2022 that resulted in about 10 civilian casualties. Very serious, but a different scale to the systematic use by Russia
- Cluster bombs pose an ethical problem when used on areas populated by civilians, partly because of the indiscriminate destruction they wreak (like most bombs) but ESPECIALLY because of the hundreds of unexploded bomblets that massive use of cluster bombs leaves in an attacked area, which will then claim civilian victims for decades to come.
- Ukraine uses, and intends to use, these bombs on a front that is already completely mined and full of unexploded bombs, in order to suppress Russian artillery and allow the removal of mines, in order to advance into occupied territories and drive out the Russian army
- every day that Ukrainian territories remain under Russian control is another day of rape, looting, torture, and murder against the Ukrainian people
This is not to say that one should be in favour of sending this type of munitions. These are weapons that should not exist. But the current debate on the subject is meaningless: pundits and armchair politicians are blathering on about unacceptable cluster bombs in a no-man’s land already saturated with mines to the point of insanity. But these armchair pacifists don’t bat an eyelid when THE SAME BOMBS HAVE BEEN USED SYSTEMATICALLY BY RUSSIA ON UKRAINIAN CITIES FOR A YEAR AND A HALF…
https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Kramatorsk_railway_station...
https://www.amnesty.it/bombe-a-grappolo-russe-colpiscono.../