The US is expected to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine, an official says

The United States is expected to announce that it will supply Ukraine with cluster munitions, a senior Biden administration official said. Kiev has pushed for the controversial and widespread weapon type, but Washington has resisted because of its potential to inflict indiscriminate harm on civilians.

Ukraine has said the weapons would aid its counter-offensive against Russian forces by enabling its troops to effectively target entrenched Russian positions and overcome its backlog in manpower and artillery.

After months of protest, expressing concern over the use of the guns and saying they were not needed, US officials have recently signaled a shift. Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, told U.S. lawmakers late last month that the Pentagon determined that cluster munitions would be useful to Ukraine, “especially against entrenched Russian positions on the battlefield.”

The expected American decision was first reported by National Public Radio and confirmed Wednesday night by the administrative officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity to make internal policy discussions public.

Here’s what you need to know about the weapons.

What is cluster munitions?

Cluster munitions, first used during World War II, are a class of weapons including rockets, bombs, missiles and artillery projectiles that break up in mid-air and disperse a number of lightweight bombs over a wide area.

Why are they controversial?

Cluster munitions bombs are designed to explode or ignite when they hit the ground, but historically the failure rate has been high, sometimes with lasting and devastating consequences for civilians. According to humanitarian groups, one-fifth or more of the bombs could stick around, potentially detonating when disrupted or handled years later.

Since World War II, cluster munitions have killed an estimated 56,500 to 86,500 civilians. They also killed and wounded dozens of US military personnel. Civilians, including children in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Balkans and Laos continue to suffer from cluster munitions remnant incidents.

Aren’t those things forbidden?

While the use of cluster munitions in itself is not a war crime, its use against civilians can be because they kill so indiscriminately with long-lasting consequences.

Because of those risks, more than 100 countries — but not the United States, Russia, or Ukraine — have signed a 2008 treaty known as the Cluster Munitions Convention, which pledges not to make, use, transfer, or dispose of them. to beat. Since the treaty was adopted, 99 percent of global stockpiles have been destroyed, according to the cluster munitions coalition.

Ukraine has said it will use weapons wisely, given that it is fighting on its own land and that many frontline areas have already been widely hit by landmines.

Has cluster munitions been used in Ukraine?

Russia has extensively used cluster munitions in Ukraine since the invasion began in February 2022. Ukraine has also used them in attempts to retake Russian-held territories, according to human rights monitors, the United Nations and reports from The New York Times. The Cluster Munition Coalition said in its annual report last summer that cluster munitions had killed at least 689 people in the first six months of combat.

While the exact number of weapons used in the conflict is difficult to pinpoint, hundreds have been documented and reported in Ukraine, mostly in populated areas, the group Human Rights Watch said in a statement. Report May 2023. The attack with the most known casualties was an April 2022 attack by a missile equipped with cluster munitions on a busy train station in Kramatorsk, which the group said left dozens dead and more than 100 others injured.

“Transferring cluster munitions ignores the substantial danger they pose to civilians and undermines the global effort to ban them,” said Mary Wareham, the group’s director of weapons advocacy. rack on Thursday.

What do other allies think of these weapons going to Ukraine?

Most members of NATO, the Western military alliance that has staunchly supported Ukraine, have signed the international ban. Ms Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense, said “anxiety about the unity of the Allies” was one of the reasons that prevented the United States from supplying the weapons to Ukraine.

How would supplying cluster munitions affect the war?

Ahead of Ukraine’s long-awaited counter-offensive, Russian troops have had months to prepare defense lines against the coming onslaught, with miles of trenches, tank traps and mines. The cluster munitions could help Ukrainian forces, which outnumber the Russian army, overcome those defenses.

In February, Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for recovery, said that prompt delivery of weapons by allies would be critical to Kiev’s advance in the counter-offensive against Russia, and that Ukraine’s choice should be to deploy the weapons on its territory.

“It’s our territory. I understand how complicated it is with all these conventions, but we can use them to resist them on our territory,” he said said in a town hall at the Munich Security Conference. “Our allies, the US, many other countries, have millions of these types of cartridges. Again, we will wait, wait, wait, and one day we will probably receive this kind of ammunition.”

Eric Schmitt reporting contributed.