The remnants of a cluster bomb found in a field in Ukraine in April 2023-
Metropolis Desk-
Several US allies have voiced concern over Washington’s decision to give Ukraine cluster munitions.
President Joe Biden described it as a “very difficult decision” when the US confirmed on Friday that it was deploying the contentious weaponry to Ukraine.
The United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Spain all responded by stating their opposition to the employment of weapons.
More than 100 nations have enacted bans on cluster bombs due to the threat they represent to populations.
They frequently disperse a large number of tiny bomblets that can kill anyone everywhere.
The munitions’ failure rate, or “dud” rate, has also generated debate. Bomblets that have not yet detonated can remain on the ground for several years before they explode randomly.
In an interview with CNN on Friday, Mr Biden stated that he had discussed the choice with friends. The decision was a component of a military aid package costing $800 million (£626 million).
Since “the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition,” the president stated it had taken him “a while to be convinced to do it,” but he finally did it.
Human rights organizations swiftly criticized the decision, stating that cluster munitions represent “a grave threat to civilian lives, even long after the conflict has ended.”
According to US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Russian cluster bombs used in the fighting failed much more frequently than the American cluster bombs that are being provided to Ukraine.
However, several of the US’s Western allies on Saturday declined to support its choice.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak noted that his country was one of 123 nations that had ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which forbids the manufacture or use of the weapons and discourages their use when questioned about his opinion of the US decision.
Before a meeting with President Biden, who is scheduled to come to the UK on Sunday before a Nato conference in Lithuania, he made these remarks.
According to remarks made by the prime minister of New Zealand, one of the nations that advocated for the adoption of the agreement, he went further than Mr Sunak.
Chris Hipkins said the weapons were “indiscriminate, they cause huge damage to innocent people, potentially, and they can have a long-lasting effect as well”. The White House had been made aware of New Zealand’s opposition to the use of cluster bombs in Ukraine, he said.
Spain’s Defence Minister Margarita Robles told reporters her country had a “firm commitment” that certain weapons and bombs could not be sent to Ukraine.
Canada also said it was against the use of cluster bombs and remained fully compliant with the Convention on Cluster Munitions. “We take seriously our obligation under the convention to encourage its universal adoption,” it said in a statement.
The US, Ukraine and Russia have not signed up to the convention, while both Moscow and Kyiv have used cluster bombs during the war.
Meanwhile, Germany, a signatory of the treaty, said that while it would not provide such weapons to Ukraine, it understood the American position.
“We’re certain that our US friends didn’t decide on supplying such ammunition lightly,” German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters in Berlin.
Ukraine’s defence minister has given assurances the cluster bombs would only be used to break through enemy defence lines, and not in urban areas.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has repeatedly said that the US and its allies are waging a growing proxy war in Ukraine.
The eastern Donetsk and southern Zaporizhzhia regions are seeing continued progress in the counteroffensive against Ukraine, which started last month.
The campaign, according to Ukraine’s military commander in chief Valery Zaluzhny, has been impeded by a lack of sufficient firepower. He voiced disappointment over the West’s tardy delivery of promised weapons.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, congratulated Donald Trump for providing “a timely, broad and much-needed” military aid package.
Mr Biden’s move will bypass US law prohibiting the production, use or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1%.
Mr Sullivan, the US national security adviser, told reporters that US cluster bombs have a dud rate of less than 2.5%, while Russia’s have a dud rate of between 30-40%, he said.
The US Cluster Munition Coalition, which is part of an international civil society campaign working to eradicate the weapons, said they would cause “greater suffering, today and for decades to come”.
The UN human rights office has also been critical, with a representative saying “The use of such munitions should stop immediately and not be used in any place”.
A spokesperson for Russia’s defence ministry described the move as an “act of desperation” and “evidence of impotence in the face of the failure of the much-publicised Ukrainian ‘counter-offensive’”. Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova also said Ukraine’s assurances it would use the cluster munitions responsibly were “not worth anything”.
“No to cluster bombs and yes to the legitimate defence of Ukraine, which we understand should not be carried out with cluster bombs,” she said.
The Canadian government said it was particularly concerned about the potential impact of the bombs – which sometimes lie undetonated for many years – on children.
Source- BBC News
