Scattered luggage and personal items outside Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine — Russia used cluster munitions in the missile strike that killed at least 58 civilians, April 8, 2022

In a 9-minute interview I joined India’s WION News on Sunday morning to set out fact v. Russian propaganda over the use of cluster munitions in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

I begin with a dissection of the Russian Defense Ministry’s unsupported claims about the Ukrainian military’s use of cluster munitions supplied by the US this month.

• Both sides have used the munitions during Putin’s 17-month invasion — but Russia has employed them far more often and in civilians areas.
• The Ministry has provided no evidence that a journalist for Russia State outlet RIA Novosti, Rostislav Zhuravlev, was killed yesterday by cluster muntions, rather than by shrapnel from conventional weapons.
• The Ministry provided no evidence that the Russian journalists were “targeted”, rather than being near the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine.
• Meanwhile, Russian missiles have killed and injured more civilians in Odesa in southern Ukraine.

I then discuss the wider issues around the munitions, including Ukraine’s five pledges on their use.

I also evaluate the latest on Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and on Ukraine’s counter-offensive, before concluding with an answer to the question, “Who should take the blame for the deaths of civilians?”

There is one man who has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Ukraine. That man is Vladimir Putin.

If Russia had no invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, if Russia had not tried to overrun Ukraine and tried to take its capital Kyiv, if Russia had not tried to remove the Zelenskiy Government, if Russia had not used military force….

Those tens of thousands of civilians would be alive today.