The Biden administration has done a full 180 on cluster munitions — from last year when their use in the Russia-Ukraine conflict was called a “war crime” to this year when they insisted they are essential to Ukraine’s defense.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan took to the stage in the press room on Friday to defend the decision.
He said agreeing to send the bombs to Kiev was “not easy” but “we will not leave Ukraine defenseless.”
“We recognize that cluster munitions pose a risk to civilians and so we have postponed the decision as much as possible,” he said.
U.S. law prohibits shipments of cluster munitions that contain more than one percent “dud” — or fail to explode more than one percent of the time. Such bombs that do not detonate immediately can create land mines and later detonate upon contact with civilians.
But Sullivan confirmed that President Biden had signed a waiver authorizing the transfer of such weapons with a higher percentage of duds, but said the percentage would be “no higher than 2.5 percent.”
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
The US has decided to send controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine in support of the counter-offensive against Russian forces
“Russia has been using cluster munitions to attack Ukraine since the beginning of this work. Russia uses cluster munitions with high dud or failure rates of between 30 and 40 percent,” Sullivan told reporters.
He said regions where the bombs would be used should already be cleared once the war is over.
“Russia has already planted tens of millions of these bombs across Ukrainian territory,” he continued. “So we have to ask ourselves: is Ukraine’s use of cluster munitions, on that same country, really such a big addition to civilian damage, given that that area needs to be demined anyway?”
The Biden administration has been considering a decision on whether to send the ammunition since December and announced on Friday that it will send thousands as part of a new military aid package worth $800 million.
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
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
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.
Sullivan told reporters the US had been given “written assurances” that the cluster bombs would be used by Ukraine in a “very careful manner” — saying it was in Ukraine’s best interest not to target areas where civilians would be harmed. could incur.
But the Kremlin will likely be hypocritical about the move and ramp up its own use of cluster munitions.
“Russia will likely take this as an invitation to step up its own use of these weapons,” Dr. Mark Berlin, a professor at Marquette University who specializes in international law, war crimes and human rights, told DailyMail.com.
“It will also likely give Russia a reason to claim hypocrisy in response to criticism of its own use, which will help to cloud the waters over who is responsible for worse behavior in the conflict,” he said.
“As long as the US continues to export cluster bombs, especially against its own policies, it undermines the moral force of US and international criticism of their use by countries like Russia.
The move could also come at a political cost to Biden. Human rights groups have been campaigning for decades to ban and delegitimize these weapons, and they will not be happy with this decision, which undermines that cause.”
In fact, it has already angered human rights groups.
“The US plan to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine is a retrograde step that undermines the significant progress the international community has made in its efforts to protect civilians,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
“Cluster munitions are by nature indiscriminate weapons that have caused untold harm to civilians around the world – in some cases decades after conflicts have ended.”
It is bipartisan and applauded in Congress.
A group of Republican House and Senate committee leaders praised Biden’s new move, but went after him for taking too long.
“While no weapon system is a proverbial golden bullet, DPICMs will help fill an important gap for the Ukrainian military and will enable Ukrainian forces to more efficiently engage and disable Russian forces, including in fortified positions.” on the battlefield. Providing DPICMs will also reduce pressure on America’s stockpile of centralized nuclear warheads,” said House State Secretary Michael McCaul, Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Jim Risch and Senate Armed Forces Committee member Roger Wicker.
“This government’s misplaced fear of escalation in the delivery of critical weapons systems – from Stingers to HIMARS to Abrams tanks and now to DPICMs – has only prolonged the war.”
“U.S. cluster munitions would limit the positioning of Russian forces to prevent effective targeting, while giving Ukrainian forces more flexibility and survivability for their own forces,” said Omar Al-Ghubsi, an analyst with the DC-based research group Center for Advanced Defense. Studies at DailyMail.com.
“Either way, these weapons are still devastating and should only be used in relatively unpopulated areas.”
He said US cluster munitions can actually reduce civilian casualties, as Ukraine already uses cluster bombs with higher ‘dud’ rates than those offered by Washington.
More isolationist House Republicans equated the move with launching World War III.
“Instead of focusing on a peaceful resolution, Biden is sending us into WWIII,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., wrote on Twitter.
“Maybe find out who left cocaine in the West Wing before WWIII started?” added Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz.
Representative Barbara Lee, a progressive Democrat from California, criticized the move.
“I am shocked to hear [Biden] plans to send cluster bombs to Ukraine. Many people are not aware of these dangerous weapons,” she said, referring to a Human Rights Watch report on civilian deaths in Ukraine from cluster munitions.
“The Ukrainian people are fighting a just fight for their rights, freedom and humanity. The US and Ukraine do not have to stoop to Putin’s level.’
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., an Air Force veteran who sits on the Armed Forces and Intelligence Committees, also condemned the move.
“I believe that a victory for Ukraine is an essential victory for democracies around the world, but that victory should not come at the expense of our American values and therefore democracy itself. Cluster munitions are indiscriminate and I strongly oppose supplying these weapons to Ukraine,” she said in a statement.
Ukrainian soldiers fire a tank at Russian troops near a front line in Kharkiv on Thursday
A woman looks at a missile casing in Kharkov Oblast
A damaged apartment building in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, seen on Thursday
A woman was seen in Kharkiv on Thursday looking at the remains of her destroyed building
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.
There is precedent for the US supplying cluster munitions to foreign powers: since 2008, Washington has exported cluster munitions to at least India, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and the UAE.