Biden will send thousands of cluster bombs to Ukraine as part of an $800 million package
The US has decided to send cluster munitions to Ukraine to help his military push back Russian troops entrenched along the front lines – despite the former White House press secretary saying last year that Russia’s use of the bombs was a “war crime.”
The Biden administration has been considering a decision on whether to send the munitions since December and is expected to announce on Friday that it will send thousands as part of a new military aid package worth $800 million.
Cluster munitions explode, scattering a series of smaller bombs over a wide area, often killing civilians. More than 120 countries have signed a 15-year-old treaty banning their use, but Ukraine and Russia have both deployed them — and Ukraine’s stockpiles of ammunition of all types are dwindling.
When, five days into the war, Jen Psaki, then White House press secretary, was asked about Russia’s use of cluster munitions, she said, “We’ve seen the reports. If that were true, it might be a war crime.”
The White House has now shifted its stance and rejects a law banning the transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1 percent. Some with a higher failure rate are sent to Ukraine.
This aerial image, taken on December 7, 2022, shows a prosecutor’s office expert examining collected remains of grenades and rockets used by the Russian military to attack the second-largest Ukrainian city of Kharkiv
Countries shown in white have not signed the convention banning the production and use of cluster munitions – bombs that detonate and scatter bombs, which regularly injure and kill civilians
The decision was made last week at a meeting of top national security officials. The New York Times reported.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was one of the last opponents of the idea, but he has grudgingly admitted that the weapons are essential to help Ukraine win the war.
The White House had hoped that Ukraine’s summer offensive would be so successful that it would no longer be necessary.
But Volodymyr Zelensky has argued that cluster munitions are the best way to kill Russians dug in trenches and block Ukraine’s counter-offensive to recapture territory.
The decision is likely to face sharp criticism from US allies, who oppose its use.
Cluster munitions are banned in almost all of Western Europe; any Central American country; and most of sub-Saharan Africa.
In the 1980s, the Russians made heavy use of cluster bombs during their 10-year invasion of Afghanistan. As a result of decades of war, rural Afghanistan remains one of the most mine-prone countries in the world.
The United States has used cluster munitions in every major war since Korea, but it is believed no new ones have been produced for years.
The US last used its cluster munitions in combat in Iraq in 2003 and decided not to use them again as the conflict shifted to more urban environments with denser civilian populations.
As many as 4.7 million cluster grenades, rockets, missiles and bombs, containing more than 500 million submunitions or bombs, are still in military inventories, according to Human Rights Watch estimates based on Defense Department reports.
Cluster munitions (pictured) have been banned in more than 100 countries after they ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was adopted in Dublin, Ireland, in May 2008
A woman was seen in Kharkiv on Thursday looking at the remains of her destroyed building
A damaged apartment building in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, seen on Thursday
A woman looks at a missile casing in Kharkov Oblast
The United States will now have to carefully assess how much ammunition it intends to ship. Some of their existing cluster munitions have a dangerously high velocity – meaning they don’t explode – so lie on the ground until someone, often a civilian, trips over them.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the standard dud rate level of one percent would be exceeded, meaning ammunition could be sent to Ukraine with a higher chance of jamming given the demand and urgency.
Critics said the decision would cost lives.
“It is staggering to see the long-standing standard of 1 percent unexploded ordnance for cluster munitions being reversed because it will result in more duds, posing an even greater threat to civilians, including deminers,” said Mary Wareham, advocacy director of the weapons division of Human Rights Watch.
“The lack of transparency on how this number was achieved is disappointing and seems unprecedented.”
Proponents argue that Russia has already used the controversial weapon in Ukraine and that the ammunition the US will supply will have a lower percentage of duds, meaning there will be far fewer unexploded cartridges that could lead to accidental civilian deaths.
Pentagon spokesman U.S. Air Force Brig. General Patrick Ryder speaks at a press briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday
The munitions will be launched from the same artillery weapons that the US and allies have already supplied to Ukraine before the war – such as howitzers – and the type of cluster munitions the US plans to send is based on a regular 155mm shell that is already at large scale in use on the battlefield.
The cluster bomb is an attractive option because it would help Ukraine destroy more targets with fewer bullets, and since the US hasn’t used them in conflict since Iraq, it has large quantities in storage that it can access quickly, Ryan Brobst said. a research analyst for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
A March 2023 letter from the Republicans of the upper House and Senate to the Biden administration urged the White House to send the ammunition to relieve pressure on U.S. war supplies.
“Cluster munitions are more effective than unitary artillery shells because they deal damage over a wider area,” Brobst said.
This is important for Ukraine as they try to free up heavily fortified Russian positions.
The use of cluster bombs in itself does not violate international law, but their use against civilians may constitute a violation.
As with any attack, the determination of a war crime requires consideration of whether the target was legitimate and whether precautions had been taken to avoid civilian casualties.
“However, the part of international law where this is starting to come into play is indiscriminate attacks against civilians,” Mark Hiznay, Human Rights Watch’s deputy weapons director, told The Associated Press.
‘So that doesn’t necessarily have to do with the weapons, but with the way in which the weapons are used
According to Ukrainian government leaders, observers and humanitarian organizations, Russian forces have used cluster bombs in Ukraine on a number of occasions.
And human rights organizations have said that Ukraine has also used them.
Ukrainian soldiers fire a tank at Russian troops near a front line in Kharkiv on Thursday
During the early days of the war, there were repeated instances of Russian cluster bombs cited by groups such as Human Rights Watch, including when they struck near a kindergarten in the northeastern town of Okhtyrka.
The open-source intelligence group Bellingcat said its investigators found cluster munitions in that attack, as well as multiple cluster attacks in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, also in the northeast.
More recently, in March, a Russian barrage of missiles and drones hit a number of urban areas, including a sustained bombardment in Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region.
Just west of it, the Ukrainian-occupied city of Kostiantynivka was hit by shelling and rockets. AP journalists in the city watched as at least four injured people were taken to a local hospital.
According to police, Russian forces attacked the city with S-300 missiles and cluster munitions.
Just a month later, Donetsk government Pavlo Kyrylenko accused Russian forces of attacking a town with cluster munitions, injuring one person.