US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby conceded the dangers to civilians posed by the delivery of cluster munitions to Ukraine, but stressed that Kiev needs the controversial weapons to stay “in the fight.” Washington has good reason to be so nonchalant, top Russian military observers have told Sputnik.
“We are very mindful of the concerns about civilian casualties and unexploded ordnance being picked up by civilians or children and being hurt, of course we’re mindful of that,” Kirby said in a US media interview on Sunday.
“But these munitions do provide a useful battlefield capability,” Kirby added, claiming that unlike Russia, “the Ukrainians will be using…them to defend their own territory hitting Russian positions.”
The Russian Embassy in Washington pounced on Kirby’s words, pointing out that the official had “de facto confessed to the United States committing war crimes during the Ukrainian conflict,” and “overtly stat[ing] that civilians would fall victims to cluster-type weapons.”
Kirby also said that the decision to transfer cluster munitions was “about keeping Ukraine in the fight,” with Ukraine’s military expending “many thousands of rounds per day” across the front and “running out of inventory.”
“Kirby seems to be stating the obvious about the situation in foreign munitions arsenals,” veteran Russian military expert Alexei Leonkov, editor of Russian military affairs magazine Arsenal of the Fatherland, told Sputnik.
Highlighting the apparent inability of the US military-industrial complex to keep up with the rate at which Ukraine is expending its munitions, and the decision to dip into stocks of shells from the Pentagon’s own inventories, the observer pointed out that problems with ammo began to show through even last year, when some of the 155 mm shells the US and its allies sent turned out to be duds.
The observer pointed out that Washington’s decision is a “precedent” only in the sense that these new cluster munitions are US-made, since in reality, its Ukrainian allies have been using cluster bombs since the very beginning of the conflict, and deliberately targeting civilians.
“The Ukrainian military has used inhumane tactics, using cluster munitions against civilians in large populated areas like Donetsk and Lugansk. The first shell would damage a civilian target, leaving people trapped under rubble. When the rescue services arrived, 40 minutes later, a cluster munition would arrive and kill those coming to help them. There have been many such cases, and they have been documented by the Joint Center of Control and Coordination,” Leonksov said, referring to the Donbass-based watchdog monitoring and documenting shelling attacks on populated areas.
Dmitri Drozdenko, Arsenal of the Fatherland’s editor-in-chief, told Sputnik that part of the problem with cluster munitions is that it’s essentially impossible to safely shoot down bombs or missiles which are laden with submunitions.
Leonkov agreed, saying it’s essentially pointless to target individual cluster rounds, and that the better strategy is to attack the howitzer that launched it, as well as ammunition dumps storing these munitions.
Is US Decision a War Crime?
Leonkov says the question of who will carry responsibility for war crimes if and when Kiev ends up using its US-made cluster rounds against civilians is a “rhetorical” one.
For his part, Drozdenko said that formally, the United States probably can’t be charged for treaty violations, since it’s not a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (nor is Ukraine). “Ukraine has been using cluster munitions made during the Soviet period from the very start of the conflict in 2014. Therefore it’s an open secret that they will be using them, for the most part, as I understand, against peaceful targets, as they already have,” he said.
Drozdenko noted that Kiev has also already liberally used deadly Lepestok anti-personnel land mines in civilian areas, in violation of the Anti-Personnel Mine treaty, to which Ukraine is a signatory, and despite commitments to destroy these weapons. What makes cluster munitions even worse is that unlike Lepestoks, which go off when placed under about 12 kg of pressure, “with cluster submunitions it’s enough just to touch them…Therefore, their dispersal is even worse than that of a mere mine,” the observer said.
How Would US React?
Asked to speculate on how Washington would respond if it was put in the same position Russia has, and if US civilians were put in harm’s way by cluster munitions, Leonkov stated bluntly that “the Americans would call this a direct threat to their national security and begin a military conflict against the country using these types of weapons against its civilians.”
Drozdenko agreed, saying that the only factor Washington really seems to understand is force, and that they do not negotiate with any party that doesn’t display sufficient strength.
