July 7 (UPI) — The Biden administration Friday said cluster munitions will be sent to Ukraine.
National Security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed the decision as he told reporters at the White House that the Pentagon would make a formal announcement concerning it, which it did late Friday.
“Ukraine would not be using these munitions in some foreign land,” Sullivan said. “This is their country they’re defending. These are their citizens they’re protecting and they are motivated to use any weapon system they have in a way that minimizes risks to those citizens.”
Cluster munitions contain multiple small explosives that are showered over a large area as the munition explodes in the air over targets. Several countries have signed on to ban the use and production of the weapon due to the hazards to civilians when unexploded bomblets are left behind.
On Twitter, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said he supported the decision.
“For Ukrainian forces to defeat Putin’s invasion, Ukraine needs at least equal access to the weapons Russia already uses against them, like cluster munitions,” he tweeted. “Providing this new capability is the right decision — even if it took too long — and is one I’ve supported.”
Later Friday, the Pentagon announced the forty-second drawdown of equipment to be sent to Ukraine for its defense against Russia’s military invasion. In a Defense Department statement, officials said the drawdown would include “highly effective and reliable dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM), on which the administration conducted extensive consultations with Congress and our allies and partners.”
DPICMs are the cluster munitions.
The drawdown also includes Patriot air-defense systems, Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 155mm howitzers and artillery, as well as personnel carriers and mine-clearing equipment. It also includes more than 28 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades.
German defense minister Boris Pistorius said Berlin, a signatory to the ban on cluster munitions, would not provide Ukraine with such weapons.
“Germany has signed the convention, so it is no option for us,” Pistorius told reporters, adding “those countries that have not signed the convention — China, Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. — it is not up to me to comment on their actions.”
A 2021 report by the Cluster Munition Coalition found that thousands of cluster bombs around the world killed and injured civilians in 2020 long after fighting stopped.
Human Rights Watch on Wednesday said both Russia and Ukraine are using cluster munitions and urged the United States not to provide Ukraine with the weapons.
“Cluster munitions used by Russia and Ukraine are killing civilians now and will continue to do so for many years,” said HRW acting arms director Mary Wareham in a statement. “Both sides should immediately stop using them and not try to get more of these indiscriminate weapons.”
HRW said that if the United States decided to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine it would “inevitably cause long-term suffering for civilians and undermine international opprobrium of their use.”s
