WASHINGTON: Human Rights Groups and the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States on Monday accused Russia to attack Ukraine with cluster bombs and vacuum bombs, weapons that have been condemned by various international organizations.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both said that Russian forces seemed to have used a munition that was widely banned, with Amnesty accusing them to attack preschool in Northeast Ukraine while civilians took refuge in it.
Oksana Markarova, the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, told reporters after meeting members of the US Congress that Russia had used bulled weapons, known as vacuum bombs, invasion in their country.
“They use a vacuum bomb today,” Markarova said after a meeting with parliamentarians. “… The destruction that Russia tried to Ukraine was large.”
Vacuum bombs, or torched weapons, sucks in oxygen from the surrounding air to produce high temperature explosions, usually produce a wave of duration explosions that are much longer than conventional explosives and are able to evaporate the human body.
There has been no official confirmation that the guns are used in conflict in Ukraine. CNN reported that one of his teams had seen a rocket launcher of several Russian tickets near the Ukrainian border early on Saturday afternoon.
White House Press Secretary Jen PSAKI said he had seen reports but did not have confirmation that Russia used such weapons. “If that is true, it has the potential to become a war crime,” he said to the press direction, noting that there was an international organization that would assess and the administration of President Joe Biden “would be seen as part of the conversation.”
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a comment request.
Markarova said Ukraine worked actively with the Biden and Congress government to get more weapons and harder sanctions.
“They have to pay, they have to pay dearly,” he told reporters after leaving the meeting.
One member of parliament who attended the meeting, Brad Sherman’s democratic representative, said Ukraine had asked the flying ban zone that was enforced U.S. In Ukraine but he felt it was too dangerous because it could provoke conflict with Russia.
Amnesty International said that international humanitarian laws prohibit the use of weapons indiscriminately inherently such as cluster munitions. Launching a featherless attack that kills or hurts civilians is a war crime.