Use of cluster bombs in eastern Ukraine reported

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors the situation in Ukraine's conflict-gripped eastern regions, Thursday said cluster bombs have been used during hostilities in Lugansk city.

"For the first time in many weeks, we have reported the use of cluster munitions in Lugansk last week," Xinhua news agency quoted Alexander Hug, the deputy chief monitor of the OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine, as saying in a press conference in Kiev.

Over the past one day, five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 29 wounded in clashes with pro-independence rebels in eastern Ukraine, government military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.

Cluster bombs are explosive weapons that disperse a mixture of smaller munitions over a wide area. Due to the danger it may pose to civilians, cluster munitions are banned in 114 countries in line with the Convention on Cluster Munitions. To date, Ukraine has not joined the treaty.