The Ukrainian ambassador to the US has claimed Russian forces have used thermobaric or ‘vacuum’ bombs during the invasion. Video footage of a series of explosions in the city of Kharkiv are also suspected to be the result of cluster bombs. As the invasion of Ukraine enters its second week there are fears two particularly devastating bombs are being used by Russian forces. Multiple explosions at an apartment block in Kharkiv on Monday and blasts outside a hospital in Vuhledar, Donetsk, on 24 February are thought to be the work of cluster bombs, according to Human Rights Watch. While Ukraine’s ambassador to the US has claimed thermobaric weapons, or vacuum bombs, have also been used since the invasion began. Professor Michael Clarke, a military expert and former director-general of think tank RUSI, told Sky News that although neither weapon is illegal under international law, the use of them in civilian areas is a war crime – designed to inflict “terror as well as death and destruction”. (…) Sky News has located two videos of an apartment building being hit by multiple explosions in quick succession, in the northeastern city of Kharkiv. Military experts claim the shelling in both instances is in line with the “classic pattern” of a cluster bomb. Nine people, including three children, are reported to have died.
via sky: Ukraine invasion: What are cluster and vacuum bombs – and are they being used by Russia in Ukraine?