KIEV, June 17 (RIA Novosti) – The Ukrainian security forces have not used white phosphorous in bombing the civilians in the southeast of the country, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said.
"I understand that you haven’t believed it [the information about the use of phosphorous bombs] for a single moment," Avakov wrote on Facebook.
The UN considers phosphorus munitions as weapons of mass destruction, their use is prohibited by the Geneva Convention.
Earlier, Ukrainian independence supporters reported that the village of Semenivka in the suburbs of Slaviansk had been attacked with incendiary bombs. Local media later reported those bombs could be white phosphorus bombs.
A military expert on international humanitarian law Ivan Kotlyarov told RIA Novosti that the use white phosphorus in Slaviansk was a possibility.
The US Department of State deems the reports about the use of white phosphorus as unreliable.
