(HorizonPost.com) – Last week, a video was posted on Twitter showing Ukrainian forces using the US-supplied HIMARS weapons systems to destroy a Russian howitzer and three rocket launchers.
With Ukraine running low on weapons, last week the Biden administration announced that it would be sending cluster bombs to Ukraine as part of its new $800 million military aid package, the Associated Press reported.
In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria last Friday, President Biden defended the decision to supply cluster munitions banned by many Western countries, saying it took him a while to be convinced, but he ultimately acquiesced to the Pentagon’s recommendation.
In justifying the decision, Biden told Zakaria that Ukraine is “running out of ammunition” and the cluster munitions are a temporary solution to help stop Russian tanks.
More than two-thirds of NATO members have banned the use of cluster bombs due to the high rate of civilian casualties.
Cluster bombs detonate in the air, releasing scores of smaller bombs.
Administration officials have been debating sending cluster bombs to Ukraine for months before the president made the decision last week.
At a White House press briefing last week, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan acknowledged the risk to civilians from the “unexploded ordnance” in cluster bombs, which is why US officials “deferred the decision for as long as we could.”
Sullivan told reporters that the cluster bombs the US will supply Ukraine have a reduced “dud rate,” meaning there will be fewer unexploded ordnance.
Kyiv has been asking for cluster bombs to aid its campaign to break through Russian lines and retake territory as part of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
According to US officials, Russian forces have already been using cluster bombs in Ukraine, including in areas populated by civilians.
In a Pentagon briefing last week, Under-Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl told reporters that the US has “hundreds of thousands” of cluster bombs with a low dud rate, but did not say how many would be supplied to Ukraine.
Kahl said Kyiv has given written assurance that the cluster bombs would not be used in areas populated by civilians and will provide a careful accounting of where the bombs are used.
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