[UPDATE May 2022: A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report documents Russian forces' use of cluster munitions in attacks across Ukraine. At least six types of cluster munition has been used by Russia since the beginning of its invasion in February 2022. Evidence indicates that Ukraine has used them at least once.]

Summary

Non-signatory Russia says it cannot join the convention as it regards cluster munitions as legitimate weapons despite the humanitarian risks associated with their use. Russia last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2012. It abstained from the vote on a key United Nations (UN) resolution in December 2020, which urged states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”

Russia—and the Soviet Union before it—is a major producer, stockpiler, and exporter of cluster munitions. Russia continued to develop newer models of cluster munitions in 2020, but there is no information on the status of any production and transfers. Russia has participated in a joint military operation with the Syrian government since September 2015, which has seen the widespread use of cluster munitions.

Policy

The Russian Federation has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Russia is one of the most vocal critics of the convention and has not taken any steps to accede as it sees military utility in cluster munitions. Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov stated in 2016 that “our country strictly complies with its commitments, including with regard to cluster munitions (CMs) that Russia views as a legal means of warfare.”[1] In 2017, Russia said its assessment of the convention “has not changed” and called it “a politicized document that tailors the very definition” of cluster munitions “to the interests of individual states which are trying to preserve their one-sided military and technical advantages.”[2] Russia reiterated this position in November 2020, calling cluster munitions “a lawful form of munitions.”[3]

Russia never participated in the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4] When the convention opened for signature in December 2008, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed Russia’s opposition to “unjustified restrictions and bans on cluster munitions,” which it defended as “a legitimate type of weapon that is not banned by international humanitarian law and plays a significant role in the defense interests of Russia.”[5]

Russia participated as an observer in meetings of the convention in 2010 and 2011. It has been invited to, but has not attended any of the convention’s meetings since then.[6]

In December 2020, Russia abstained from the vote on a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[7] Russia has previously voted against the annual resolution promoting the convention.[8]

In 2014, Russia criticized and expressed “serious concern” at the use of cluster munitions “against civilian population” in eastern Ukraine.[9] However, it did not acknowledge or take any measures to address the use of cluster munitions by Russian-backed armed opposition groups in eastern Ukraine (see Use section below).

Russia has not condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria or Yemen. However, it voted in favor of a 2015 UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution that expressed concern at evidence of cluster munition use in Darfur, Sudan.[10] Russia also voted in favor of a 2014 UNSC resolution that expressed concern at the “indiscriminate” use of cluster munitions in South Sudan.[11]

Russia is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Russia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and, after opposing CCW discussions on cluster munitions for years, changed its position in 2011 to support an effort led by the United States (US) to conclude a new CCW protocol on cluster munitions.[12] That initiative failed in November 2011, which ended CCW deliberations on cluster munitions, leaving the Convention on Cluster Munitions as the sole international instrument specifically dedicated to ending the suffering caused by these weapons. Since 2011, Russia has not proposed any more CCW work on cluster munitions.

Development and production

Russia, and historically the Soviet Union, is a major producer and exporter of cluster munitions. Additionally, several states inherited stocks of cluster munitions when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Our records on the production, usage, and export of cluster munitions…are confidential and will not be publicized.”[13]

According to international technical reference materials and corporate marketing, three state-owned Russian companies have produced cluster munitions:

• Bazalt State Research and Production Enterprise (air-dropped bombs);
• Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (120mm, 152mm, and 203mm artillery projectiles); and
• Splav State Research and Production Enterprise Rocket (122mm, 220mm, and 300mm rockets).

Russia is continuing to develop new cluster munitions, but information on production is limited. In July 2020, Splav, which is part of state-owned arms company Rostec, displayed a new generation of multi-barrel rocket launchers at its refurbished rocket assembly facility in Tula, south of Moscow.[14] Photographs from the event show 9M55K 300mm cluster munition rockets and 9N235 fragmentation submunitions made for the Tornado-S system, a modernized version of the BM-30 Smerch rocket.[15]

In early 2018, Russia began testing the “Drel” RBK-500U guided cluster bomb developed by Bazalt State Research and Production Enterprise, according to the company.[16]

As of July 2021, there is no evidence that Russia has deployed either of these new cluster munitions.

Transfer

There is limited information available on Russian arms transfers, including cluster munitions. However, at least 35 states have stockpiled cluster munitions of Russian/Soviet origin, including 21 states not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[17]

At least 10 States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions that have stockpiled cluster munitions of Russian/Soviet origin have formally declared the stocks, providing types and quantities, as listed in the following table:

Stockpiled Soviet/Russian cluster munitions declared by States Parties[18]

Stockpiling

In 2009, Russia acknowledged that it possesses a “large” stockpile of cluster munitions “stored throughout the state” and said disposing of such a wide range of obsolete cluster munitions would be time-consuming and “a significant financial expenditure.”[19] In November 2011, Russia said its cluster munitions stockpile was similar in size to that of the US, which then reported stockpiling 5.5 million cluster munitions.[20]

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “The quantity and types of cluster munitions stockpiled in the Russian Ministry of Defence are confidential and will not be publicized.”[21] The following list of types stockpiled is based on a wide variety of publicly available sources.

Cluster munitions stockpiled by the Russian Federation[22]

Note: FAE = fuel air explosive; HE/AT = high explosive antitank; SFW = sensor-fuzed weapon.

Use

Use in Syria

In Syria, there is strong evidence that Russia stockpiles cluster munitions at its airbase at Hmeymim, southeast of Latakia city, and that it is using cluster munitions or, at a minimum, directly participating together with Syrian government forces in attacks that have used cluster munitions on opposition-held areas of governorates.

Russian and Syrian government forces use many of the same aircraft and weapons and frequently carry out operations together.[23] There have been at least 687 cluster munition attacks in Syria since July 2012, including at least one attack between 1 August 2020 and 31 July 2021. Previously, Cluster Munition Monitor reported at least a dozen attacks using cluster munitions in Syria between August 2019 and July 2020.

There was a significant increase in the use of cluster munitions in Syria after Russia began its joint operation with Syrian government forces on 30 September 2015.[24] All except two types of the cluster munitions used in Syria since 2012 were manufactured by the Soviet Union/Russia.[25]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has not explicitly denied Russia’s involvement in using cluster munitions in Syria, but has claimed that cluster munitions have been used in accordance with international humanitarian law and not indiscriminately.[26] In December 2016, Russia issued a three-page position paper on the use of cluster munitions in Syria that concluded that “the question of the involvement of the Russian military personnel in the cases of indiscriminate CMs [cluster munitions] use in Syria [is] totally inappropriate.”[27] In December 2015, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that “Russian aviation does not use [cluster munitions]” and that “there are no such munitions at the Russian air base in Syria.”[28]

The civilian harm caused by the use of cluster munitions in Syria has attracted widespread media coverage, public outcry, and condemnations from more than 145 states.[29]

In July 2019, research organization Conflict Intelligence Team identified an RBK-500 ShOAB-0.5 cluster bomb and RBK-500 AO-2.5RT cluster bomb on display at the Patriot Military Park in Moscow as part of an exhibition of weapons and military equipment used by Russia in its joint military operation in Syria.[30]

Previous use

In 2014–2015, Russian-backed insurgents used cluster munition rockets in eastern Ukraine.[31] Ukrainian government forces were also responsible for cluster munition rocket attacks.[32] Russia expressed concern at Ukrainian government use of cluster munitions, but never commented on cluster munition attacks by separatist forces.[33] There has been no evidence or allegations of new use of cluster munitions in eastern Ukraine by any party since a February 2015 ceasefire went into effect.[34]

During an August 2008 conflict with Georgia, Russia used cluster munitions including RBK-500 AO-2.5RTM cluster bombs and Uragan ground-fired rockets containing 9N210 and 9N235 submunitions. Russia used cluster munitions in or near nine towns and villages in the Gori-Tskhinvali corridor south of the South Ossetian administrative border.[35] Russia denied using cluster munitions in Georgia.[36]

Russian forces used cluster munitions in Chechnya from 1994–1996 and again in 1999.[37]

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, cluster munitions were also used by various forces in several conflicts in Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Tajikistan. The extent of involvement of Russian forces in this use of cluster munitions is not known but cannot be discounted.

The Soviet Union used cluster munitions from 1979–1989 in Afghanistan. It first used cluster munitions in 1943 against German armed forces during World War II.[38]