US to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs labelled ‘war crime’

The White House will supply Ukraine with ‘bomblet’ munitions banned in over 100 countries despite calling their use a war crime for a ‘red line’ of high civilian causalities. 

The United States will supply Ukraine with cluster munitions banned in more than 100 countries despite calling Russia’s use of the controversial weapon a “war crime”.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed plans to provide the highly lethal weapons in an attempt to cover dwindling supplies of artillery available for Ukraine’s counteroffensive

“The use of cluster munitions by Russia in this conflict is completely unacceptable on multiple accounts,” he said, before adding Ukraine’s use of the bombs would prevent further civilian causalities.

“With this weapon system as well as other weapons systems we have identified war crimes committed by Russians,” he said.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed the US would supply cluster munitions to Ukraine.

His comments echo those from former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who said at the start of the war that Russia’s use of cluster munitions would be a red line for violence against civilians tolerated by the Biden administration.

“It is - it would be,” Psaki said. “It would potentially be a war crime.”

Both Russia and Ukraine have already used the controversial rockets, which disperse multiple small explosives over a wide radius across the battlefield.

The high “dud rate”, however, leaves live ordinance lingering as a danger to civilians long after a skirmish has ended.

Mr Sullivan said that the US version of the munitions were more recent models with low “dud rates” not higher than 2.5 per cent.

“Russia’s been using cluster munitions with a high dud, or failure, rate of 30 to 40 per cent. In this environment, Ukraine has been requesting cluster munitions in order to defend its own sovereign territory,” Mr Sullivan said.

Mr Sullivan defended the decision to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine, saying it wasn’t a case of “they do it so we’ll do it”.

“Russia has already spread tens of millions of these bomblets across Ukrainian territory,” he said.

“We recognise cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordinance,” he said. “But there is also a massive risk of civilian harm if Russian troops or tanks roll over Ukrainian positions and take more Ukrainian territory and subjugate more Ukrainian civilians because Ukraine does not have enough artillery.”

Human rights groups condemned the plan, saying the bomblets can go undetonated and remain at the location for years posing threats to civilians.

“Cluster munitions used by Russia and Ukraine are harming civilians now and will leave bomblets behind that will continue to do so for many years,” Human Rights Watch said.

“Both sides should immediately stop using cluster munitions and not seek to obtain more of these indiscriminate weapons. The US should not transfer clustermunitions to Ukraine,” it said.

Originally published as US to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs labelled ‘war crime’