Cluster bombs: Concerns are growing that the United States is sending cluster bombs to Ukraine

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By Catherine Armstrong and Antoinette Radford BBC News, Jul 8, 2023, 17:40 GMT

Updated 3 hours ago

Image source, Getty Images

photo caption,

Cluster bomb remnants found in a field in Ukraine in April 2023

Many US allies have expressed unease with Washington’s decision to supply cluster bombs to Ukraine.

The United States confirmed on Friday that it would send the controversial weapons to Ukraine, with President Joe Biden calling it a “very difficult decision”.

In response, the United Kingdom, Canada and Spain all indicated their opposition to the use of the weapons.

Cluster bombs have been banned by more than 100 countries because of the danger they pose to civilians.

They usually release large numbers of small bombs that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area, while those that fail to explode pose a danger for decades after a conflict ends.

Biden told CNN in an interview on Friday that he had spoken to allies about the decision, which was part of an $800m (£626m) military aid package.

The president said it took “some time for him to be convinced to do it”, but he acted because “Ukrainians are running out of ammunition”.

Human rights groups quickly criticized the decision, with Amnesty International saying that cluster munitions pose a “serious threat to civilian lives, even long after a conflict has ended”.

And on Saturday, some Western allies of the United States refused to endorse its decision.

When British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was asked about his stance on the US decision, he highlighted that the UK was one of 123 countries to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the production or use of cluster munitions and discourages their use.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles went further, telling reporters that her country had a “firm commitment” not to send certain weapons and bombs to Ukraine.

“No to cluster bombs and yes to the legitimate defense of Ukraine, which we understand should not be carried out with cluster bombs,” she said.

The Canadian government has said it is particularly concerned about the potential impact on children of the bombs — which have sometimes not been detonated for many years.

It has also said it opposes the use of cluster bombs and remains fully committed to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

“Canada is fully in compliance with the treaty, and we take very seriously our obligations under the treaty to encourage its global adoption,” she said in a statement.

The United States, Ukraine and Russia did not sign the agreement, while Moscow and Kiev both used cluster bombs during the war.

Meanwhile, Germany, a signatory to the treaty, said that although it would not provide such weapons to Ukraine, it understood the US position.

“We are sure that our American friends did not take the decision about providing such ammunition seriously,” German government spokesman Steffen Heppistreit told reporters in Berlin.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister gave assurances that cluster bombs would not be used in urban areas and would only be used to penetrate enemy defense lines.

The munitions have caused controversy about their failure — or their failure rate, which means that unexploded bomblets can remain on the ground for years and then explode randomly at a later time.

One by one, America’s NATO allies were lining up to distance themselves from its decision to supply Ukraine with controversial cluster bombs.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made it clear that Britain is a signatory to a 2008 agreement that bans their production and use – and discourages others from using them.

Canada went further with a government statement saying it was committed to ending the effects of cluster munitions on civilians, particularly children.

Spain said these weapons should not be sent to Ukraine, while Germany said it also opposed the decision, although it understood the reasoning behind it.

Even Russia has condemned it, despite its widespread use of cluster munitions against Ukraine, saying they will lie on the ground for generations.

But General Sir Richard Sherriff, former deputy commander of NATO in Europe, defended the decision, saying their deployment would make it easier for Ukraine to break through Russian lines.

If the West had provided more weapons earlier, he said, there would be no need to provide them now.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that US cluster bombs being sent to Ukraine are safer than those he said are already being used by Russia in the conflict.

He told reporters that the bomb failure rate in the United States is less than 2.5%, while the bomb failure rate in Russia is between 30-40%.

Biden’s move would bypass US law prohibiting the production, use, or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1%.

The American Cluster Munitions Coalition, part of the international civil society campaign working to eliminate the weapons, said they would cause “greater suffering today and for many decades to come.”

The UN human rights office was also critical, with a representative saying “the use of such munitions must stop immediately and not be used anywhere”.

explain video,

Watch: A US military video showing how cluster munitions explode

A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman called the move an “act of desperation” and “proof of helplessness in the face of the failure of the widely publicized Ukrainian ‘counter-offensive'”.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Ukraine’s assurances that it would use cluster munitions in a responsible manner “do not amount to anything”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously accused the United States and its allies of waging an expansive proxy war in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive, which began last month, is intensifying in eastern Donetsk and southeastern Zaporizhia regions.

Last week, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zaluzhny, said the campaign had been bogged down by a lack of sufficient firepower. He expressed frustration with the slow delivery of weapons promised by the West.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the US president for the “timely, extensive and much-needed” military aid package.

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