Credit: Joel Gunter/BBC
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Markings matching those of a cluster munition on the roof of a car near a playground in Kharkiv, Ukraine
Item Information
- Author: Frank Gardner
- Role: BBC Security Correspondent
1 hour ago
The United States has announced that it will comply with a Ukrainian request for the delivery of the controversial cluster munitions.
The move has been criticized by human rights groups as the weapon is banned in more than 100 countries.
What are cluster munitions?
Cluster munitions are a method of fragmenting a large number of small bombs from a rocket, missile, or artillery shell and dispersing them over a large area during flight.
They’re supposed to explode on impact with the ground, but a significant portion are “failed,” meaning they don’t initially explode especially if they land on wet or soft ground.
They can later explode if picked up or stepped on, killing or maiming the victim.
From a military point of view, they can be extremely effective when used against entrenched ground forces and fortified positions, making large areas too dangerous to move around until completely cleared.
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Many submunitions do not detonate immediately, creating a kind of “minefield”.
Why are they banned?
More than 100 countries, including the UK, France and Germany, have signed an international treaty the Convention on Cluster Munitions that bans the use or stockpiling of these weapons due to their indiscriminate effect on civilian populations.
Children are particularly vulnerable to injury as the small bombs can resemble a toy left in a residential or agricultural area and are often picked up out of curiosity.
Human rights groups have labeled cluster munitions “abhorrent” and even considered them a war crime.
Who still uses cluster pumps?
Both Russia and Ukraine have used cluster munitions since the start of the fullscale invasion of Russia in February 2022.
Neither of them signed the contract banning them. The US does not do this either, but has already criticized Russia’s excessive use of the weapon.
Russian cluster munitions reportedly have a “failure rate” of 40%, meaning large quantities remain a hazard on the ground where the average failure rate is around 20%.
The Pentagon estimates that the failure rate of its own cluster bombs is less than 3%.
Joe Biden
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US President Joe Biden said it “took a while to be convinced” but acted because “Ukrainians are running out of ammunition.”
US President Joe Biden defended his “very difficult decision” to give Ukraine cluster bombs that have been shown to be killing civilians.
The president said it “took a while to be convinced to do this,” but he acted because “Ukrainians are running out of ammunition.”
The Ukrainian head of state praised the “timely” step.
However, the British Prime Minister has suggested that the country should “disadvise” the use of cluster bombs, while Spain has criticized the decision.
When asked about his stance on the US decision, Rishi Sunak pointed out that the UK is one of 123 countries that have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the manufacture or use of cluster munitions and discourages their use.
Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles told reporters that her country had a “firm commitment” not to send certain weapons and bombs to Ukraine.
“No to cluster bombs and yes to the legitimate defense of Ukraine, which we believe should not be carried out with cluster bombs,” she said.
But Germany, which signed the treaty, said that while it would not supply Ukraine with such weapons, it understood the US position.
“We are sure that our American friends did not take the decision to supply such ammunition lightly,” German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters in Berlin.
Biden told CNN in an interview on Friday that he had spoken with allies about the decision, which was announced ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Lithuania.
The US, Ukraine and Russia did not sign the convention, and Moscow and Kiev used cluster bombs during the war.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said at Friday’s daily White House briefing that officials “recognize that cluster munitions pose a risk of civilian harm” because of the unexploded bombs it creates.
However, he said Ukraine was running out of artillery and needed “a supply bridge” while the US was ramping up domestic production.
“We will not leave Ukraine defenseless at any point in this conflict period,” he said.
The Defense Minister of Ukraine assured that cluster bombs would not be used in urban areas, but only to breach enemy defenses.
The munitions have caused controversy over their failure rate — that is, small, unexploded bombs can remain in the ground for years and later explode indiscriminately.
Sullivan told reporters that US cluster bombs sent to Ukraine are much safer than what he says Russia is already using in the conflict.
He told reporters that Americans’ failure rate is less than 2.5%, while Russia’s is between 30 and 40%.
Biden’s actions circumvent US law that prohibits the manufacture, use or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate greater than 1%.
When the White House was asked early in the war about allegations that Russia was using cluster and vacuum bombs, the press secretary at the time said it would be a potential “war crime” if it was true.
There were mixed reactions in the US President’s Democratic Party. More than a dozen MPs spoke out against the plan.
Human rights groups also criticized the decision. Amnesty International said fragmented munitions “pose a serious threat to civilian lives, even long after the conflict has ended.”
The US Cluster Munitions Coalition, which is part of an international civil society campaign calling for gun abolition, said they would “cause even greater suffering today and for decades to come.”
The UN human rights office was also critical: “The use of such ammunition must be stopped immediately and must not be used anywhere,” said a representative.
A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry described the action as an “act of desperation” and “proof of helplessness in the face of the failure of the muchtouted Ukrainian ‘counteroffensive'”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously accused the US and its allies of waging an escalating proxy war in Ukraine.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the US President for a “timely, comprehensive and muchneeded” $800 million military aid package.
He tweeted that this would “bring Ukraine closer to defeating the enemy and democracy to defeating dictatorship”.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which began last month, is progressing in the east Donetsk and southeast Zaporizhia regions.
Last week, Ukraine’s military commanderinchief Valery Zaluzhny said the campaign had been hampered by a lack of sufficient firepower and expressed frustration at slow arms shipments promised by the West.
Why does Ukraine ask for it?
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Russian soldier next to what appears to be an RBK500 cluster bomb in 2016
The Ukrainian armed forces are running out of artillery shells. Mainly because they, like the Russians, use them extraordinarily often, and Ukraine’s western allies can’t replenish them fast enough.
On the largely static and strenuous fronts of southern and eastern Ukraine, artillery became a key weapon.
The Ukrainians now face a daunting task as they try to push the Russian invaders out of their entrenched defenses along a 1,000km front.
Lacking enough artillery shells, Ukraine asked the US to stockpile cluster munitions to attack Russian infantry.
This was not an easy decision for Washington and is deeply unpopular with many Democrats and human rights activists. The debate has now lasted at least six months.
What impact will this US decision have?
The immediate effect will be to undo much of the moral foundation on which Washington stands in this war.
Russia’s numerous alleged war crimes are welldocumented, but this move is likely to draw allegations against the United States.
Cluster munitions are a hideous weapon and are banned in much of the world for good reason.
This move by the United States will inevitably put it at odds with its Western allies, and any perception of division in that alliance is exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin wants and needs.