Reports on supplying cluster bombs to Ukraine 'misinformation': Turkey

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Reports claiming that Turkey had been supplying Kiev with cluster bombs are disinformation and have the purpose of wrecking Ankara's peace efforts, a source in the Turkish presidential administration told Sputnik on Wednesday.  

"You are asking us to comment on misinformation. Can't you see that Turkey is the only country that works for peace? [Turkish] President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is the only leader who can talk to both leaders and is trusted. Such information serves the interests of those who wish to undermine our peace efforts," the source said.

Earlier today, Foreign Policy cited current and former US and EU officials that Turkey has been supplying Ukraine with US-designed artillery-fired cluster bombs since November 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov raised doubts about the credibility of the reports and said that Russia is monitoring the situation.  

"Of course, it is difficult to talk about the reliability of these reports. You know that there are more fakes than reliable and truthful reports. Therefore, of course, we are closely monitoring all this," Peskov told reporters, noting that Turkey is Russia's partner.  

It is worth noting that Ukrainian forces have been using cluster bombs since 2015 in battles against the republics of Lugansk and Donetsk. They fired such munitions on Donetsk on March 14, killing 20 people and wounding 37 others.

A report by The New York Times has recently claimed that Ukrainian troops fired cluster munitions, banned by 110 countries around the world, on a Ukrainian village.

The cluster bombs that the Ukrainian forces used against a village populated with civilians on their own territory are banned by countries around the world for their capacity to haphazardly kill innocent civilians, according to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Almost 20% of these munitions fail to detonate on impact and remain a threat to civilians long after hostilities end, killing and maiming them indiscriminately.

Ukrainian forces have committed multiple war crimes in the form of deliberate attacks against civilian targets, massacres of civilians, torture of POWs, and indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas.