President Biden announced the US was providing the Ukrainian military with cluster munitions, a widely banned weapon of war known to cause indiscriminate death and destruction to non-military targets.
President Biden announced Friday the US was providing the Ukrainian military with cluster munitions, a widely banned weapon of war known to cause indiscriminate death and destruction to non-military targets.
“It was a very difficult decision on my part. And by the way, I discussed this with our allies, I discussed this with our friends up on the Hill,” Biden told CNN host Fareed Zakaria before adding that, “The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition.”
Cluster munitions are powerful artillery shells that scatter dozens of smaller explosive submunitions over a wider area, increasing lethality as they spread out to hit multiple targets, similar to pellets spreading from a single shotgun shell.
Two-thirds of NATO alliance members — including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Czech Republic — have banned the munitions because of the weapon’s ugly track record for causing civilian casualties.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty that prohibits all use, transfer, production, and stockpiling of the scattering explosive, has been ratified by 111 nations – but not by Russia, Ukraine or the United States.
Human Rights Watch has urged world leaders to not supply cluster munitions to either Ukrainian forces or invading Russian troops because of their “foreseeable danger to civilians.”
“Cluster munitions used by Russia and Ukraine are killing civilians now and will continue to do so for many years,” Mary Wareham, acting arms director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
