Five days into Russia’s war with Ukraine, when asked about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s use of “illegal cluster bombs and vacuum bombs,” then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime.”
Today CBS News and other media outlets are reporting that the Biden administration will send Ukraine a cluster munitions package to help in its counteroffensive against Russia.
Ukraine has been asking for these weapons for a long time. Both Russia and Ukraine have used them against each other during the war. But we are running out of regular bombs to give Ukraine (think about that) and the Russians are dug in tight.
Cluster munitions are banned by more than 100 countries because they contain multiple explosive bomblets called submunitions that threaten civilian populations during the shelling and after as not all of the bomblets will explode.
These unexploded bomblets could remain a danger to the civilian population for years after the wars end.
“Cluster munitions remain one of the world’s most treacherous weapons. They kill and maim indiscriminately and cause widespread human suffering,” Gilles Carbonnier, vice president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said at a conference on the munition in Switzerland last year.
“Any use of cluster munitions, anywhere, by anyone, must be condemned,” Carbonnier said.
According to CNN:
The United States is expected to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine on Friday that will include cluster munitions for the first time, defense officials have told CNN.
CNN first reported last week that US President Joe Biden’s administration was strongly considering approving the transfer of the controversial weapons to Ukraine, whose forces have been struggling to make major gains in a weeks-long counteroffensive.
Cluster munitions, also called cluster bombs, are canisters that carry tens to hundreds of smaller bomblets, also known as submunitions. The canisters can be dropped from aircraft, launched from missiles or fired from artillery, naval guns or rocket launchers.
The canisters break open at a prescribed height, depending upon the area of the intended target, and the bomblets inside spread out over that area. They are fused by a timer to explode closer to or on the ground, spreading shrapnel that is designed to kill troops or take out armored vehicles such as tanks.
