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Mar 5 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
We have extensively covered the use of Russian cluster bombs in Syria, and now we are seeing them in Ukraine.

This video from Ukraine's emergency service, filmed in Odesa region, shows the remains of RBK-500 cluster bomb and PTAB-1M submunitions.
facebook.com/DSNSODE/videos…
Neither Russia nor Ukraine has joined the ban on cluster munitions, but this type of weapon is inherently indiscriminate as it disperses bomblets over a large area, so any use of those in populated areas, like here in Zatoka resort town on the Black Sea, is a potential war crime.
The Ukrainian Emergency Service notes that they recovered 253 unexploded PTAB-1M submunitions (we count 208 in the video).

An RBK-500 PTAB-1M cluster bomb carries 268 submunitions, and as the video shows the remains of only one bomb, most or all of them likely failed to explode.
This, in turn, presents persistent danger to civilians (the large amount of unexploded submunitions is one reason why most of the world has abandoned the use of cluster munitions).

We ask anyone in Ukraine not to touch these submunitions (or any unidentified metal objects).
You can find more coverage of the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine during the first days of the war from our colleagues at @bellingcat

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More from @CITeam_en

CIT (en) Profile picture
Mar 6
Russia is now using older Tochka-U missile launchers against Ukraine, as seen in Desnyanka, 40 km from the border with Belarus.

Videos and photos show a tell-tale 9M79M booster familiar from Syria and Karabakh

It typically remains intact when a cluster warhead is used. Image
Over the past few years, Russia has gradually switched the Tochkas in its rocket brigades for newer Iskanders. The 47th brigade was the last to do so, and evidence suggests it has used Tochka missiles during the siege of Mariupol in Eastern Ukraine.
ukrinform.ru/rubric-ato/341… Image
However, as @MotolkoHelp reports, just recently Tochka-U launchers turned up in Belarus, where they proceeded to the border with Ukraine.

Desnyanka is but 40 km from the border, the 70km range of the 9M79M missile would allow it to hit from Belarus.

Read 5 tweets
CIT (en) Profile picture
Mar 4
Russia is using its full conventional arsenal against Ukraine - including modern guided rockets, such as this that fell in Ukraine-controlled Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, damaging a house.

The nose canards match a guided rocket for Russia's "Tornado-S" MLRS.
One of the rocket's fragments has a 9Б706 (9B706) marking - which suggests it is a control unit installed in this type of rocket.
newstula.ru/fn_654486.html
There is evidence that Russia is operating Tornado-S MLRS in the Donbas.

This MLRS convoy, seen in Russia close to Donbas shortly before the war, is likely from the Southern Military District's 439th Brigade, which operates Tornado-S
Read 4 tweets
CIT (en) Profile picture
Mar 3
The Russian Air Force has lost a Su-25SM ground attack jet, photo by Ukrainian journalist Andriy Tsaplienko shows.

The plane was quickly purged from Russian air spotter databases, but an archived photo clearly shows a Su-25SM with the same registration number as on the remains.
According to archived database data, this plane was part of the 18th Close Air Support Air Regiment, based in Chernigovka in the Russian Far East.

Jets from this regiment were reportedly flown to Belarus as part of "Allied Resolve-2022" exercise
Later, satellite imagery showed Su-25 jets based at Luninets airfield, 32 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

Evidence suggests they flew sorties that hit civilian areas, including in Irpin northwest of Kyiv.
Read 8 tweets
CIT (en) Profile picture
Mar 2
As Russia reverts to the familiar tactics of area bombings, non-military objects are hit across Ukraine - like a hospital in Kharkiv, an apartment block in Borodyanka, and even Kyiv's Babyn Yar, the area of Nazi shootings of Jews.

This latter attack was so egregious that it even prompted a condemnation from Auschwitz Holocaust museum


It also killed five people, including, per @den_kazansky, a family that was just passing by.
We geolocated the attack area next to the Kyiv TV tower, that, per @mod_russia, was the target of the strike.

Per this map, the missile hit closest to the area where Kyiv's Jews were stripped of their clothes before being led to the ravines for execution.
kby.kiev.ua/komitet/ua/res…
Read 5 tweets
CIT (en) Profile picture
Mar 1
More and more information is emerging on the poor food supply and living conditions of the Russian soldiers.

This video shows an army ration captured by Ukrainian soldiers with a 2015 expiration date.
The food situation probably explains documented cases of Russian soldiers looting Ukrainian food stores in occupied towns.

Incidentally, investigations have shown that army catering has been handled for years by "Putin's chef" Evgeny Prigozhin, and apparently the situation has improved little since the oligarch lost those contracts a few years ago.
Read 6 tweets
CIT (en) Profile picture
Feb 28
More and more evidence is emerging that the Russian forces rely on civilian radios and mobile phones for their communications. Our source in one invading unit confirms this.

This photograph is said to show a civilian radio captured by Ukrainians.
The Mykolaiv regional administration even reported that the Russians resort to signal flares to coordinate their advances, but we have been unable to independently confirm this.

Some Russian troops do carry military radios, like an airborne troops convoy destroyed NW of Kyiv.
The reliance on civilian means of communication means even you can eavesdrop on Russian communications.


No doubt, Ukrainian and Western intel services are also doing this, which is how they might know the Russians are frustrated and demoralized
Read 5 tweets

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