This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
The United States has decided to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine and is expected to announce on July 7 that they will be included in a new military aid package, according to news reports.
U.S. officials quoted in the reports on July 6 said the cluster munitions would be part of a new military assistance package to Ukraine worth about $800 million. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the move before the official announcement.
Asked about the reports, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said he was aware of them but said he had “nothing specific to announce.”
News reports in recent days said President Joe Biden was actively considering the inclusion of the controversial munitions in a new package of weapons.
The administration has avoided providing cluster munitions thus far for fear of alienating allies, but debate has intensified in recent months.
On June 30, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States had been thinking about providing the munitions “for a long time,” noting that Ukraine has asked for cluster munitions, European countries have provided them, and Russians troops have used them on the battlefield.
Laura Cooper, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense focusing on Russia and Ukraine, has advocated in favor of sending cluster bombs to Ukraine, recently telling Congress that munitions “would be useful especially against dug-in Russian positions on the battlefield.”
Cluster munitions are bombs that are dropped from the air, releasing large numbers of small submunitions, or bomblets, over a wide swath of land.
These bombs have caused controversy for both their indiscriminate impact and the risk of unexploded ordnance. The UN reports that up to 40 percent of bombs don’t explode upon impact, and they remain a long-term risk to civilians after the war ends.
Additionally, due to the widespread area in which they land, the bombs do not distinguish between civilian and military targets.
Both Russian and Ukrainian forces have used cluster munitions in Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion, resulting in the death of Ukrainian civilians, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on July 6.
HRW along with 35 other organizations, including UNICEF USA and Amnesty International USA, signed a letter dated June 14 urging Biden not to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty signed in 2008, prohibits all use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions. The agreement, which entered into force in 2010, has been implemented in 123 states, but not by the United States, Ukraine, or Russia.
