NEW YORK, July 8. /TASS/. The US has moved to give Ukraine cluster munitions as Kiev and Washington are running out of ordinary ammunition, US President Joe Biden said in an excerpt of an interview with CNN that was published on Friday.
“This is a war relating to munitions. And they’re running out of that ammunition, and we’re low on it,” Biden said. “And so, what I finally did, I took the recommendation of the Defense Department to – not permanently – but to allow for this transition period, while we get more 155 weapons, these shells, for the Ukrainians,” he said.
Biden said it was a “difficult decision.”
The US president added that cluster munitions are needed to bolster the chances of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
“The main thing is they either have the weapons to stop the Russians now – keep them from stopping the Ukrainian offensive through these areas – or they don’t. And I think they needed them,” he said.
The US on Friday officially announced it would transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine. The announcement didn’t specify the exact number of munitions to be provided.
Farhan Haq, a deputy spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, earlier said that the UN chief supports the Convention on Cluster Munitions and opposes the use of this type of weapons on the battlefield.
Cluster bombs can contain hundreds of submunitions. When the bomb is detonated in the air, the submunitions are scattered over an area of tens of square meters. Some of them do not explode immediately and remain on the ground, posing a threat to civilians long after the conflict has ended. The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was adopted in 2008, has been joined by 111 countries, and another 12 have signed but not yet ratified it.
According to the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch, the proportion of unexploded submunitions is usually significantly higher than stated.
