US To Deploy Cluster Bombs To Ukraine
The United States has decided to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, multiple news outlets have reported, despite concerns about the deployment of weapons banned by more than 100 countries.
A weapons package including cluster munitions fired from a 155-millimetre howitzer cannon is expected to be announced as soon as Friday,
Three US officials told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.
Cluster bombs release large numbers of smaller bomblets across a wide area posing a major threat to civilians both during the war and long afterwards because some of the bomblets will fail to explode.
Read Also:
Israel Ends Military Operations After Two Days Of Clashes With Palestinian
More than 120 countries have signed the 2008 united nations convention on cluster munitions to ban their use including some of Ukraine and the US’s key allies such as France and the United Kingdom.
The total aid package is expected to be worth as much as $800m and includes munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS),
and ground vehicles such as bradley fighting vehicles and striker armoured personnel carriers.
Defence Department official Laura Cooper told Congress last month that military analysts had found that cluster bombs would be “useful, especially against dug-in Russian positions”.
The Biden administration’s new weapons package is worth $800 million (£626,500), CBS News reported.
