Ukrainian troops have fired three incendiary rockets from a multiple rocket launcher (MRL) and three cluster bomb shells at some areas of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), according to the DPR representative office at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of issues related to Ukraine's war crimes (JCCC).
"The shelling by the AFU was recorded in the following directions: at 05:25 in the locality of Maximilianovka – the city of Donetsk (Petrovsky and Kievsky districts): three rockets were fired from MLRs [incendiary]; at 05:40 in the locality of Kurakhovo – the city of Donetsk (Petrovsky and Kirovsky districts): three shells of 155-mm caliber [cluster] were fired," the office said in a statement.
The statement added that at 05:45, Ukrainian troops again fired four shells of NATO caliber 155 millimeters at Petrovsky and Kirovsky districts of Donetsk.
Artillery of 155 millimeter caliber is used by NATO countries. The United States has supplied Ukraine with M777 long-range 155mm howitzers, which Ukrainian troops are actively using to shell the cities of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. German PzH 2000 self-propelled artillery units, Polish Krab SAU, and French CAESAR SAU, which use rounds of this caliber, have also been delivered to Ukrainian forces.
Washington's decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions has outraged human rights groups because the weapons can cause civilian casualties in a war zone decades after the end of hostilities.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia has so far not needed to use cluster munitions, but if this type of weaponry is used against its forces, Moscow has the right to take mirror actions.