The United States confirmed on Friday that it will send cluster munitions to Ukraine and defended it as “the right thing to do” to help kyiv in the counteroffensive.
Until now, Washington had rejected the shipment of these types of weapons, which more than 120 countries have agreed to ban internationally, but the US National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, announced that the initiative has been approved by the president of USA, Joe Biden, “following a unanimous recommendation.”
The decision comes despite widespread concerns that these munitions could cause civilian casualties, according to sources close to the file cited by the Associated Press.
Cluster munitions, long sought after by Ukraine, release submunitions that spread over a large area and aim to wreak havoc on multiple targets at once.
The Ukrainian authorities requested the weapons to push forward their campaign and break through Russian troop lines in the ongoing counter-offensive. Russian forces already use this type of ammunition, also known as cluster, on the battlefield, US officials said.
Cluster munitions can be fired by artillery that Washington has supplied to Ukraine, and the Pentagon has a large stockpile of them.
The last large-scale use of cluster munitions by the US was during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to the Pentagon, and US forces considered cluster munitions a key weapon during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. according to Human Rights Watch.
In the first three years of that conflict, it is estimated that the US-led coalition dropped more than 1,500 cluster bombs in Afghanistan.
Supporters of the ban on cluster weapons say they indiscriminately kill and endanger civilians long after they are used, and some NGOs have warned of the consequences of Russia’s use of such munitions in Ukraine.
A convention banning the use of cluster bombs was followed by more than 120 countries agreeing not to use, produce, transfer or stockpile the weapons and to destroy them after use.
The United States, Russia and Ukraine are among the countries that have not signed this convention.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: TSF
