Reports indicate that US President Joe Biden is all set to agree to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, fulfilling a request from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy despite concern from arms control groups and human rights activists about the potential harm to civilians.
Since long, Kyiv has been pushing for this type of weapon, but Washington has resisted it so far because of its potential to cause indiscriminate harm to civilians.
Ukraine claims that these weapons would help in its counteroffensive against Russian troops by allowing its forces to effectively target entrenched Russian positions and to overcome its disadvantage in manpower and artillery.
Biden would be sending the munitions under Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows him to transfer existing US stocks of weapons to Ukraine Cluster munitions officially called dual-purpose improved conventional munitions…were first used during World War II.
They are a class of weapons including rockets, bombs, missiles and artillery projectiles that break apart midair and scatter smaller munitions over a large area.
Cluster bombs release large numbers of smaller bomblets across a wide area.
Both Russian and Ukraine are reported to be already using them to deadly effect in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
They are designed to take out multiple military targets by scattering large numbers of explosive "bomblets" over a large area, but the unexploded ordnance left behind can pose danger to civilians both during conflict and even for years afterward.
#ClusterBombs #USClusterBombs #RussiaUkraineWar ~HT.99~PR.153~ED.155~
