Joe Biden has overcome his opposition and taken the step to agree to the delivery of cluster bombs to Ukraine for the counter-offensive against Russia. They have done so despite the fact that most of their allies are signatories to an agreement banning the use of these weapons, which are dangerous to civilians, especially children, even years after their use. Germany and France, for example, continue to oppose the deployment, but in their statements before the official announcement were careful to avoid open criticism of Washington.
The United States is including cluster munitions in a new military aid package to Ukraine, White House National Security Council spokesman Jake Sullivan confirmed at a news conference Friday. The Pentagon later specified that the new package, the 42nd, supplied by the United States is worth 800 million dollars (around 730 million euros) and includes “hundreds of thousands” of cluster bombs and plenty of artillery and tank ammunition.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s government considers cluster bombs to be particularly useful in the counteroffensive phase to hit Russian troops entrenched in defensive positions, although they are aware that they are being fired on their own territory and pose a threat for the future.
“Ukraine needs artillery to maintain its offensive and defensive operations. At the heart of this conflict is artillery. “Ukraine is firing thousands of shells every day to defend against Russian advance attempts and also to support their own efforts to retake their sovereign territory,” said Sullivan, who indicated that this type of cluster munition will serve as a “bridge.” , while it produces more conventional projectiles.
The spokesman emphasized that Russia has used this type of ammunition extensively and that Ukraine has promised to use it carefully to minimize the risk to civilians, stressing that it is a matter of defending its own territory. In addition, it is definitely necessary to carry out post-conflict clearance and demining of the country, since Russia has already used them and the error rate is very high, and Ukraine has committed to it, he added.
“We recognize that cluster munitions pose a risk of harm to civilians from unexploded ordnance. That’s why we postponed the decision for as long as possible. “But there is also a great risk of civilian damage as Russian troops and tanks overwhelm Ukrainian positions and capture more Ukrainian territory and subjugate more Ukrainian civilians,” Sullivan said. “Ukraine would not use this ammunition in a foreign country. It is their country they are defending. “These are their citizens who protect their weapon systems and who are motivated to use them in a way that minimizes the risks to those citizens,” he said.
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Cluster munitions are controversial, considered particularly cruel and banned in more than 100 signatories to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, including Russia, Ukraine and the United States. Human rights organizations claim both Russia and Ukraine used them in the current war. This international agreement is also known as the Oslo Convention because it was opened for signature in the Norwegian capital in 2008. It prohibits the use, stockpiling, manufacture and transfer of cluster munitions.
“Germany has also signed the convention; That’s not an option for us,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told the press in Bern, Switzerland. The French authorities have expressed the same sentiment. However, NATO takes no position on this and leaves it to each country to make its own decisions. The Atlantic Alliance will celebrate its summit next week in Vilnius, Lithuania.
danger to the civilian population
The UN also rejects the use of these weapons, said a spokesman for its Secretary General, António Guterres. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights again this Friday urged countries not to use them. “Cluster munitions disperse small bombs over a large area, many of which do not detonate immediately,” said office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado. “They can still kill and maim years later. Therefore, its use must be stopped immediately,” he added.
Cluster bombs, also known as cluster bombs, are dropped from the air or fired from the ground and randomly disperse multiple submunitions or small bomblets over an area the size of a soccer field. They are designed to wreak havoc on multiple targets at once.
The problem is that this results in indiscriminate attacks and endangers potential civilian casualties, since some of the bombs often remain unexploded immediately after scattering, posing a threat to the population that can linger for decades. The bomblets are designed to detonate on contact but do not detonate themselves. If they land on vegetation, water, or soft ground, they may not explode.
“The transfer of these weapons would inevitably cause prolonged suffering for civilians and undermine the international ignominy of their use,” Human Rights Watch said Thursday. Tens of thousands of civilians fell victim to this type of ammunition, which is used in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, the Balkans and Ukraine, among others.
The United States claims that the bombs it will supply to Ukraine have a low “failure rate,” meaning there will be far fewer unexploded bombs that could cause accidental civilian deaths. The Pentagon has an inventory of so-called Enhanced Dual-Use Conventional Munitions (DPICM) that it no longer uses. The DPICMs that Washington will supply to Kiev will be fired from 155mm guns and each contain 88 submunitions.
“Cluster munitions used by Russia and Ukraine are killing civilians now and will continue to do so for many years to come,” Mary Wareham, acting arms director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Thursday. “Both parties should cease operations immediately and not attempt to procure any more of these random weapons.”
Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told a Defense Department news conference Thursday that if the United States decided to supply the cluster bombs to Ukraine, it would “carefully select munitions with the lowest recoil rates.” have “current test data”. “The deliveries we are considering would not include older variants with (non-detonation) rates greater than 2.35%,” he said. The general added that Russia uses cluster munitions, which have a very high failure rate.
According to the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin contacted his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov on Thursday to discuss developments on the battlefield in Ukraine. “Austin also provided an update on US security assistance. “Both leaders have pledged to maintain close contact,” read the official summary of the call, which made no mention of the cluster bombs or other specific material.
The last large-scale US use of cluster bombs was during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but US forces also considered them a key weapon during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, according to Human Rights Watch. It is estimated that the US-led coalition dropped more than 1,500 cluster bombs in Afghanistan in the first three years of this conflict.
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