Human Rights Watch: Russia Likely Used Cluster Munition in Aug. 5 Strike on Kyiv Sorting Center

Human Rights Watch said Thursday that Russia apparently used a cluster-munition warhead in an Aug. 5 strike on a Nova Poshta sorting center in Kyiv, killing three people and raising possible war-crime concerns because the weapon was used in a densely populated civilian area.

The rights group said the attack hit a facility belonging to Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s largest private courier and mail company, in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi district. Human Rights Watch and Nova Poshta said three people were killed at the site; Human Rights Watch said they were employees of partner or contracting organizations. The strike came during a wider Russian missile and drone barrage on Kyiv and the surrounding region that reportedly killed at least 17 civilians and injured dozens, according to The Associated Press, citing Kyiv authorities and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had targeted logistics centers in Kyiv, including Nova Poshta sites, but it has not publicly acknowledged using cluster warheads in the strike.

Human Rights Watch said its researchers verified two videos and seven photos related to the attack and analyzed satellite imagery from the site. It said the visual evidence showed missile remnants and a pattern of multiple near-simultaneous explosions consistent with a cluster munition, a weapon that releases many smaller explosive submunitions over a broad area. Photos from the site, including AP images that Human Rights Watch said it verified, showed a missile remnant that its researchers identified as the nose cone of an Iskander-M ballistic missile equipped with a cluster-munition warhead.

The group said the location of the strike heightened the risk to civilians. According to its findings, the Nova Poshta facility was less than 1 kilometer east of a hospital and less than 500 meters west of a residential area containing schools, a stadium and high-rise apartment buildings. Cluster munitions are especially dangerous in cities because they scatter explosives over a wide footprint and can leave unexploded duds behind, threatening civilians after an attack.

“Russia has once again fired an inherently indiscriminate weapon into a densely populated civilian area,” said Kseniya Kvitka, assistant Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch. “There can be no justification for using cluster munitions near homes, schools, and hospitals, and it shows Russia’s utter disregard for civilians and the international law designed to protect them.”

Cluster munitions are banned under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which Human Rights Watch said has been joined by 112 countries and signed by 12 more. Russia is not a party to the treaty. Even so, Human Rights Watch said Russia remains bound by international humanitarian law, which requires warring parties to distinguish between military targets and civilians and to take feasible precautions to minimize civilian harm. The group said using cluster munitions in civilian areas can violate the laws of war because of the weapon’s wide-area effects.

The allegation comes as civilian harm in Ukraine has risen sharply amid intensified Russian long-range strikes on cities. The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said civilian casualties in the first half of 2026 were 37% higher than in the same period of 2025 and 114% higher than in 2024, driven by the intensified use of powerful weapons in populated urban areas. “The use of widely banned weapons amid a mounting civilian toll underscores the urgent need for accountability,” Kvitka said. “The August 5 attack should be investigated as a possible war crime, and Russia should immediately end its use of cluster munitions and other indiscriminate attacks.”