The United States will send cluster bombs to Ukraine for a counterattack

The United States confirmed that it would send cluster bombs to Ukraine, despite criticism from Germany and organizations such as Human Rights Watch, due to the great danger they posed to the civilian population.

According to Joe Biden, the decision was “difficult” but necessary because “the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition”.

The advertisement is not without surprise and controversy. This explosive device is banned in more than a hundred countries and is in contravention of United Nations warnings. However, it was actually used in the war in Ukraine by Russian and Ukrainian forces, causing civilian deaths and serious injuries among the survivors.

Many of the sub-projectiles dropped by these types of bombs do not explode, so they can remain buried in the ground and triggered long after the conflict is over.

In their announcement, US authorities insist that those devices with a failure rate of less than 2.35% will be sent to Ukraine. By contrast, according to US officials, the cluster bombs that Russia has used since the invasion began have failure rates of 30-40%.

Interactions

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg left the decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine in the hands of the allies, after he indicated that there is no common position within NATO on the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions that prohibits the use, development, production, possession, stockpiling and transfer of this class of weapons.

“A number of allies have signed the agreement and some have not. It is an individual decision to decide whether to deliver this military aid to Ukraine. It is up to the governments, not the alliance,” the NATO political leader said.

Defense Secretary Margarita Robles confirmed that she “does not participate” and is “against” the US decision.

Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, considers the decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine as another American provocation that “brings humanity closer to a new world war.”

They also denounced Russia that the US had “ignored the negative opinions of its allies about the dangers of indiscriminate use of cluster munitions”, in the same way that it had “turned a blind eye to civilian casualties”.