U.S. Approves Cluster Munitions For Ukraine

Washington D.C./08.07.23/Turan:   U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday announced a massive aid package for Ukraine worth $800m. The deal includes controversial cluster munitions, "a highly effective and reliable artillery capability to engage area targets that the United States has not previously provided to Ukraine," as Secretary of State Antony Blinken put it, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

The package also includes additional precision aerial munitions, munitions for multiple launch rocket systems, 155mm howitzers, 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition, air defense munitions, anti-tank missiles and rockets, more armored Bradley and Stryker vehicles, and other equipment essential to strengthening Ukraine’s forces on the battlefield, according to Blinken.

In public and in private, the Biden administration official on Friday offered a full-throated defense of the decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine. National security adviser Jake Sullivan and Pentagon official Colin Kahl addressed reporters separately, asserting that the U.S. should fulfill Kyiv's request despite concerns about the risk to civilians, because Ukraine does not have enough artillery, white U.S. is dipping into its reserve of cluster munitions. Besides, they reminded, Russia has already been using these weapons.

Ktiv has already sent assurances that it would use the U.S.-provided weapons, supposedly with a dud rate of 2.5 percent or less, in ways that minimize harm to civilians, according to the White House.

Cluster munitions are banned by 123 countries through a 2008 treaty. Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. are not party to that treaty.

Alex Raufoglu