US to Provide Ukraine With Cluster Bombs That Pose Extra Risks for Civilians
10:01 08.07.2023 (Updated: 10:43 03.08.2023)
© AP Photo / Fernando Vergara
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The United States has unveiled a new military assistance for Ukraine that includes dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, also referred to as cluster bombs, the Department of Defense announced in a release on Friday.
The new package consists of additional air defense munitions, armored vehicles, anti-armor weapons and other equipment, the release said.
"Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced additional security assistance to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs," the release said. "This package will provide Ukraine with additional artillery systems and ammunition, including highly effective and reliable dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM), on which the administration conducted extensive consultations with Congress and our Allies and partners.
According to Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, Washington's move to send cluster munitions to Ukraine is a gesture of desperation, while it also ignored the objections of its allies.
"Cluster munitions are a gesture of desperation," Antonov said. "Such a measure speaks of the recognition by the United States and its satellites of their impotence. However, here they do not want to admit their own failures and the failure of the attempts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to carry out an offensive against the Russian regions. Therefore, they commit new madness."
"Washington ignored the negative voice of its allies regarding the dangerous use of indiscriminate cluster munitions," Antonov said. "This is despite the fact that among the members of the North Atlantic Alliance, there are many states that participate in the well-known Convention on Cluster Munitions. The UN Secretary-General's concerns also meant nothing to the administration."
US cluster munitions sent by the Biden administration will not win the war for Kiev, but will be a curse on Ukraine's farmland for years, former CIA station chief Phil Giraldi told Sputnik.
"It [cluster munitions] will not win the war for Ukraine," Giraldi said. "What the bombs will do is kill a lot of civilians as they spread their charges wide and the unexploded buried ordnance will be a curse on Ukraine's farmland wherever they are deployed for a long time to come."
The former CIA officer said the decision comes as Ukraine is losing on the battlefield against Russia, measured by its failing counterattack which has been supported enthusiastically by NATO, and the chanceries in Europe and the United States.
Giraldi said the move also illustrates the hypocrisy of the Biden Administration, which criticized the alleged use of such weapons last year by Russia.
The United States was not signatory to international agreements to ban the use of such weapons, Giraldi added, the deployment of which most countries consider to be tantamount to a war crime akin to using gas or chemicals.
US Fully Aware of the Escalation
President Joe Biden said the United States is providing Ukraine with cluster munitions for a temporary period while it continues to produce enough 155mm artillery shells to supply Kiev amid Russia's special military operation.
Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov called the decision a "gesture of desperation," and one that is pushing humanity closer to a new world war.
University of Illinois Professor of Law and UN war crimes consultant Francis Boyle believes the US decision is an escalation in the use of terror weapons.
The cluster munitions, Boyle added, will only exacerbate the conflict by dramatically increasing the number of civilian casualties.
Moreover, it seems to be paving the way for a dramatic escalation of the war at NATO’s Vilnius Summit next week in Lithuania, Boyle told Sputnik.
"Despite what they say in public, the Biden administration must know and understand these escalatory dynamics," Boyle added.
