Surgeons in rebel-held Ukraine confirm the use of cluster bombs

Surgeons in the rebel hub of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, where dozens of civilians have died in recent weeks, confirmed on Tuesday that some patients were victims of cluster bombs, as alleged by Human Rights Watch.

Although Kiev vehemently denied that its troops battling the pro-Russian insurgency in the east were using the controversial and indiscriminate cluster munitions, medics claimed Ukrainian forces were at fault.

"I have removed fragments of sub-munition weapons used by Ukrainians from the injured dozens of times," said a surgeon in Donetsk's Kalinin hospital, one of the facilities treating wounded civilians.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report identifying 12 incidents in which the highly imprecise munitions killed six people, including a Swiss aid worker, earlier this month.

Cluster bombs are munitions that contain dozens or even hundreds of explosives carried by bombs or rockets and "spread indiscriminantly over a wide area, often the size of a football field", Human Rights Watch noted.

"These arms are not for destroying buildings; they are uniquely for killing people," the surgeon working in the Kalinin hospital said.