U.S. officials maintained Friday that Ukraine has provided written assurances to minimize civilian casualties with the use of the controversial munitions.
The United States is supplying cluster munitions to Ukraine to help defend its territory against Russia, despite concerns from human rights groups that the deployment of such weapons endangers civilians.
Speaking at the Pentagon on Friday, Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, announced a new drawdown of $800 million in military assistance, including DPICMS or cluster bombs.
U.S. officials maintained that Ukraine has provided written assurances to minimize civilian casualties with the use of the controversial munitions as human rights groups stress that the weapons drop dozens of bomblets that endanger civilians. Cluster bombs release a larger number of bomblets over a wide area, and they can continue to pose a deadly risk long after the fighting has ended.
More than 100 countries ban such weapons because unexploded bomblets can be picked up by civilians, causing injury or death.
NPR first learned of the plan to send cluster bombs to Ukraine earlier this week.
President Biden told CNN in an exclusive interview that the decision to send Ukraine cluster munitions was “very difficult.”
“And by the way, I discussed this with our allies, I discussed this with our friends up on the Hill,” Biden said, according to CNN.
