What are ‘vacuum’ and cluster bombs and is Russia using them against Ukraine?

As the Ukraine-Russia conflict enters the eighth day, some reports are circulating that Vladimir Putin is using the destructive thermobaric bombs, also known as ‘vacuum bombs’, and cluster bombs.

Even though there is no evidence of it yet, human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova on February 28 accused Russia of deploying these devastating bombs in the ongoing war.

Thermobaric munition is said to be more powerful than any other conventional weapon, and many regard it as the "father of all bombs."

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Cluster ammunition

A cluster munition, or cluster bomb, is a weapon containing multiple explosive submunitions.

These munitions are dropped from aircraft or fired from the ground or sea, opening up in mid-air to release tens or hundreds of submunitions, which can destroy an area up to the size of several football fields.

Anybody within the strike area of the cluster munition, be they military or civilian, is very likely to be killed or seriously injured.

The fuse of each submunition is activated when it falls, causing it to explode above or on the ground.

But often large numbers of the submunitions fail to function as designed, and instead land on the ground without exploding, where they remain as very dangerous duds.

Vacuum bombs

Thermobaric weapon, dubbed ‘vacuum bombs’, are aerosol bombs, or fuel air explosives. It is a two-stage munition.

The first-stage charge discharges an aerosol made up of very fine material – from a carbon-based fuel to tiny metal particles. A second charge ignites that cloud, creating a fireball, a huge shock wave, and a vacuum as it sucks up all surrounding oxygen.

The blast wave can last for significantly longer than a conventional explosive and is capable of vaporising human bodies.

Such weapons are used for a variety of purposes and come in a range of sizes, including weapons for use by individual soldiers such as grenades and hand-held rocket launchers.

A prolonged thermobaric blast can go also around corners, making it effective against bunkers, trenches and tunnels, which would provide shelter from a normal blast.

Laws governing the use of such weapons

The Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibits under any circumstance the use, development, production, acquisition, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions, as well as the assistance or encouragement of anyone to engage in prohibited activities.

To date,110 states are parties to the convention. Russia and Ukraine have not ratified this pact.

However, there are no international laws designed specifically to ban their use.

But if a country uses them to target civilian populations, then it could be convicted of a war crime under the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907.

International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan has said his court will investigate possible war crimes in Ukraine.

Have they been used before?

Thermobaric munitions were first used during World War Two by the German army. They were not widely developed until the 1960s, when the US used them in Vietnam.

The US also used them in Afghanistan. First, in 2001 to try to destroy al-Qaeda forces hiding in the caves of the Tora Bora mountains, and in 2017, against the Islamic State.

Russia used them in its war in Chechnya in 1999 and was condemned by Human Rights Watch for doing so.

Russian-made thermobaric weapons were reportedly used in the Syrian civil war by the Bashar al-Assad regime.

(With inputs from agencies)