The US has confirmed it will send thousands of controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine to help the country’s fight-back against Russia.
More than two-thirds of NATO members have banned the weapons due to their track record for causing many civilian casualties.
The munitions — which are bombs that open in the air and release scores of smaller ‘bomblets’ — leave behind unexploded rounds, which often cause unintended civilian deaths.
Confirming on Friday the US will be sending the weapons to Ukraine, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan acknowledged the risk they pose but said Kyiv has promised to use them carefully.
He said the US will send a version of the munition that has a reduced “dud rate,” meaning fewer of the smaller bomblets fail to explode.
“We recognise the cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance,” he told a White House briefing.
“This is why we’ve deferred the decision for as long as we could. But there is also a massive risk of civilian harm if Russian troops and tanks roll over Ukrainian positions and take more Ukrainian territory and subjugate more Ukrainian civilians, because Ukraine does not have enough artillery. That is intolerable to us.”
Cluster munitions are seen by the US as a way to get Kyiv critically needed ammunition to help bolster its offensive and push through Russian front lines.
US leaders debated the thorny issue for months, before Mr Biden made the final decision this week.
The news on Friday on came on the eve of the NATO summit in Lithuania, where President Joe Biden is likely to now face questions from allies on the controversial move.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, some cluster munitions leave behind bomblets that have a high rate of failure to explode — up to 40 per cent in some cases.
The rate of unexploded ordnance for the munitions that will be going to Ukraine is under three per cent, and therefore will mean fewer unexploded bombs left behind to potentially harm civilians.
A convention banning the use of cluster bombs has been joined by more than 120 countries that agreed not to use, produce, transfer or stockpile the weapons and to clear them after they’ve been used.
The United States, Russia and Ukraine are among those who have not signed on.
The cluster munitions are included in a new $800 million package of military aid the US will send to Ukraine.
The weapons will give Ukraine a highly lethal capability and also allow them to strike more Russian targets using fewer rounds.
So far the reactions from NATO allies have been muted.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed on Friday that the military alliance takes no position on cluster munitions and it is a decision that allies will make. And Germany, which has signed the ban treaty, said it won’t provide the bombs to Ukraine, but expressed understanding for the American position.
“We’re certain that our US friends didn’t take the decision about supplying such ammunition lightly,” German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters in Berlin.
“We need to remember once again that Russia has already used cluster ammunition at a large scale in its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”
Oleksandra Ustinova, a member of Ukraine’s parliament who has been advocating that Washington send more weapons, noted that Ukrainian forces have had to disable mines from much of the territory they are winning back from Russia. As part of that process, Ukrainians will also be able to catch any unexploded ordnance from cluster munitions.
“We will have to de-mine anyway, but it’s better to have this capability,” Ms Ustinova said.
The last large-scale American use of cluster bombs was during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to the Pentagon. But US forces considered them a key weapon during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, according to Human Rights Watch. In the first three years of that conflict, it is estimated the US-led coalition dropped more than 1,500 cluster bombs in Afghanistan.
Proponents of banning cluster bombs say they kill indiscriminately and endanger civilians long after their use. Marta Hurtado, speaking for the UN human rights office, said on Friday “the use of such munitions should stop immediately and not be used in any place.”
“We will urge the Russian Federation and Ukraine to join the more than 100 states that have ratified the convention of cluster munitions and that effectively ban their use,” she added.
