Three Ukrainian civilians have reportedly been killed in a Russian cluster bomb attack on the southern city of Kherson.

Five others were wounded and 60 buildings damaged during the daylight attack in the city’s Chornobayivka suburb on Thursday, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said.

“It is preliminarily known that the shelling was carried out with cluster munitions,” said Andriy Yermark, Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff.

Cluster munitions – a type of bomb that opens in the air and releases smaller “bomblets” across a wide area – are used by both Russia and Ukraine, which has received them as military aid from the United States.

Critics say the weapons litter the ground and harm and kill many more civilians than combatants.

Kherson was retaken by Ukrainian soldiers last year but Russian forces remain entrenched just miles away, across the Dnipro river.

The Ukrainian army last week said it had gained multiple bridgeheads on the left bank of the river.

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