UKRAINE WELCOMES CLUSTER MUNITIONS, SAYS OFFICIAL

Fri 07 July 2023:

A senior Ukrainian official says Ukraine will welcome the delivery of cluster munitions from the United States because they would have an “extraordinary psycho-emotional impact” on Russian forces.

“Undoubtedly, the transfer of additional volumes of shells to Ukraine is a very significant contribution to the acceleration of de-occupation procedures,” presidential political adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told the Reuters news agency.

“Especially if we are talking about cluster ammunition, which is undoubtedly capable of having an extraordinary psycho-emotional impact on already demoralised Russian occupation groups.”

Earlier this week, three US officials speaking on condition of anonymity said a weapons aid package that includes cluster munitions is expected to be announced as soon as Friday.

Human rights groups oppose this move, but it could provide a powerful new element to Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces.

Germany opposes sending cluster munitions to Kyiv

Germany says it opposes sending cluster munitions to Ukraine a day after US officials said Washington was planning to provide Kyiv with the weapons.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Germany, as one of 111 states party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), opposed the plan as well.

Asked for comment on what US officials had said, Baerbock told reporters at a climate conference in Vienna, “I have followed the media reports. For us, as a state party, the Oslo agreement applies.”

A total of 111 states signed the CMM banning the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster munitions.

Human Rights Watch also called on Russia and Ukraine to stop using cluster munitions and urged the US not to supply them.

What are cluster munitions?

Report Points to Success in Global Campaign Against Cluster Bombs

The Biden administration is expected to announce on Friday that it will send thousands of them as part of a new military aid package worth $800m, according to people familiar with the decision who were not authorised to discuss it publicly before the official announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The move will likely trigger outrage from some allies and humanitarian groups that have long opposed the use of cluster bombs.

Proponents argue that Russia has already been using the controversial weapon in Syria and Ukraine and that the munitions the US will provide have a reduced dud rate, meaning there will be far fewer unexploded rounds that can result in unintended civilian deaths.

A cluster munition is a bomb that opens in the air and releases smaller “bomblets” across a wide area. The bomblets are designed to take out tanks and equipment, as well as troops, hitting multiple targets at the same time.

The munitions are launched by the same artillery weapons that the US and allies have already provided to Ukraine for the war – such as howitzers – and the type of cluster munition that the US is planning to send is based on a common 155mm shell that is already widely in use across the battlefield.

Syrian government troops often used cluster munitions – supplied by Russia – against opposition strongholds during the country’s civil war, frequently hitting civilian targets and infrastructure. And Israel used them in civilian areas in south Lebanon, including during the 1982 invasion.

In previous conflicts, cluster munitions have had a high dud rate, which meant that thousands of the smaller unexploded bomblets remained behind and killed and maimed people decades later. The US last used its cluster munitions in Iraq in 2003, and decided not to continue using them as the conflict shifted to more urban environments with denser civilian populations.

On Thursday, Brig Gen Pat Ryder said the Department of Defense has “multiple variants” of the munitions and “the ones that we are considering providing would not include older variants with [dud] rates that are higher than 2.35 percent”.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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