Direct proof of use
LB.ua identified the 9M55K5 among Russian cluster munitions used against Kharkiv neighborhoods during the full-scale invasion phase of the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War. The report describes Kharkiv's Saltivka and Industrialnyi neighborhoods as areas hit by cluster munitions and specifically names 9M55K5 in its discussion of the city's bombardment.
The source ties the munition to Russian fire against Kharkiv, while broader reporting on 3B30 submunitions in Ukraine is best treated as payload and attribution context unless the carrier rocket itself is identified.
Sources: Cluster munitions. Weapons for the offensive, Russian 3B30 submunitions documented in Ukraine (2022)
Timeline
In early March 2022, open-source investigators and humanitarian researchers documented cluster-munition attacks in multiple Ukrainian urban areas, including Kharkiv. Bellingcat described 9M54-series, 9M55-series, Uragan, Tochka, and other cluster-munition evidence across Ukraine, while Human Rights Watch attributed February 28, 2022 Kharkiv cluster-munition attacks to Russian forces using Smerch 9M55K rockets.
On April 15, 2022, ARES documented Russian 3B30 dual-purpose submunitions in Ukraine and noted that the 3B30 payload is associated with both 122 mm 9M218 Grad rockets and 300 mm 9M55K5 Smerch rockets. In July 2023, LB.ua named 9M55K5 while reviewing cluster munitions used in the war and the Russian bombardment of Kharkiv.
Sources: These are the Cluster Munitions Documented by Ukrainian Civilians, Ukraine: Cluster Munitions Launched Into Kharkiv Neighborhoods, Russian 3B30 submunitions documented in Ukraine (2022), Cluster munitions. Weapons for the offensive
Narrative
The 9M55K5 is a 300 mm Smerch-family rocket carrying a cassette warhead of dual-purpose cumulative-fragmentation submunitions. Missilery lists it for use from the 9K58 Smerch multiple launch rocket system, with a 25 to 70 km firing range and hundreds of anti-armor/anti-personnel submunitions in the warhead.
The Monitor's Russia cluster-munition profile lists the 300 mm Smerch 9M55K5 as a Russian cluster munition carrying 3B30 dual-purpose submunitions, and its Ukraine section records continued cluster-munition use in the war, including ground-fired 300 mm 9M55K-series Smerch rockets. That category-level reporting supports the Smerch-family cluster-munition context, while LB.ua provides the direct 9M55K5 conflict-use link for this page.
In catalog terms, the weapon's documented role in this conflict is long-range cluster rocket fire by Russia. The record separates that 9M55K5 use from separate 3B30 submunition finds, because the same submunition type can be associated with more than one rocket carrier.
Sources: 9M55K5 rocket, Cluster Munition Ban Policy: Russian Federation, Cluster munitions. Weapons for the offensive, Russian 3B30 submunitions documented in Ukraine (2022)
