US confirms it will send controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine.Ukraine will get a cluster munitions package to help in its counteroffensive against Russia.The White House said it had deferred the decision for as long as it could because of the risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance.
by RoninSolutions
18 comments
The US will send cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of a new military aid package, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed on Friday, following months of debate within the Biden administration about whether to provide Kyiv with the controversial weapons.
“I’m not going to stand up here and say it is easy,” Sullivan told reporters. “It’s a difficult decision. It’s a decision we deferred. It’s a decision that required a real hard look at the potential harm to civilians. And when we put all of that together, there was a unanimous recommendation from the national security team, and President Biden ultimately decided, in consultation with allies and partners and in consultation with members of Congress, to move forward on this strategy.”
The munitions are included in an $800 million arms package for Ukraine and will come in the form of artillery shells that can be fired from the 155 mm howitzers the U.S. has already provided to Ukraine. The M864 artillery shells contain 72 submunitions that are roughly the size of grenades, and instead of having a single impact spot, they can blanket an area larger than four football fields. These should help compensate for Ukraine’s limited conventional artillery stockpile.
The U.S. will be able to provide Ukraine with “hundreds of thousand of additional artillery ammunition immediately,” Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin Kahl told reporters.
Ukrainians provided the U.S. with written assurances that “they will not use the rounds in civilian populated urban environments and that they will record where they use these rounds,” which will simplify later defining efforts, Kahl added. The U.S. has already invested $95 million in Ukraine’s de-mining activities.
“I will say that we have multiple variants of DPICMs in our stocks, and the ones that we are considering providing would not include older variants with dud rates that are higher than 2.35 percent,” Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon’s spokesman, told reporters on Thursday. “We are aware of reports out there from several decades ago that indicate that certain 155 mm DPICMs have higher dud rates, so we would be carefully selecting rounds with lower dud rates for which we have recent — recent testing data.”
Ryder said DPICMs specifically have “anti-armor and anti-personnel capability,” adding that “essentially it can be either loaded with shape charges, which are armor-penetrating, or they can be loaded with fragmentary munitions, which are anti-personnel. So clearly, a capability that would be useful in any type of offensive operations.”
The real risk to civilians is the side targeting them: Russia. This slow drip of weapons types is absolutely enraging. Give. All. The. Weapons. Ukraine. Needs. Now.
Beautiful. Wagnuts figured out human wave tactics could be effective by sending more meat than snipers and artillery could handle. Cluster munitions are designed to wipe out a whole wave over a broad area with one shot. Hope these are effective for Ukraine.
Hell yea, cant wait to see these Orcs torn to shreds. Knowing that my tax money is contributing to that is ice cream on the cake.
Why is it “controversial”? Lol. It’s not controversial to me. Bring as much as you can.
bro why these journalists and news anchors have to call it controversial? is it a conventional weapon = yes, end of discussion.
Good. Go home Russians.
Was skeptical about this, thought it would be same “no” as for ATACMS. Good to be wrong.
I can’t understand what is controversial. Ukraine asked for these munitions knowing the risks. Every equipment and ammo that helps the Ukrainian offensive and reduces Ukrainian casualties isn’t controversial , it’s essential.
Is about to rain metal!
If Ukraine is OK with it, it’s being used on their soil so it should be THEIR call to deal with the aftermath, not the US’s.
As a former British army EOD officer I am really saddened by this announcement. If deployed cluster munitions leave a terrible amount of UXO and arguably worse than mines. This will result in years of civilian casualties and whole areas being left to fallow.
Children love cluster munitions, there is not one that does not look like a toy. They are shaped like balls, rockets, butterflies or look cool. The amount of kids I witnessed in Bosnia who lost their lives or were terribly maimed will haunt me and it will be the same for Ukraine.
“Ukraine would not be using these munitions in some foreign land. This is their country they’re defending.”
This is the key part on top of the fact the Russian units have already heavily mined areas. They are going to have a major de-mining operation ahead no matter what, but if they’re the ones dropping them, they at least know where to look.
Really dumbass move by the US to delay this. They’re afraid of Russian civilians dying in the mainland but are quiet when Ukrainian civilians, a lot of kids mind you, are dying because of Russian terrorist attacks.
When will they realize the battlepass system they’ve implemented will only let Russia buy more time in getting more mobiks in the front then resupplying munitions to conduct terror attacks against Ukraine?
If the nuclear power plant blows, I’m betting that the Baltic states and Poland aren’t gonna wait for the US’ greenlight anymore because of the environmental damage Russia’s gotten away with the dam.
And how many died unnecessarily by waiting to make the decision?
Been waiting for that to happen for a long time, extremely happy! 🙂
Fuck Russia for making this necessary
U.S.A- clusterfucking good! But seriously though this is good and will result in increased armour losses for Russia as well as any God damn thing that happens to be in the field when one of these things go off.
To the people that think Ukraine shouldn’t have these, I feel like you’re missing the forest for the trees. The most dangerous and pressing issue Ukraine is facing is just getting these terrorists out of Ukraine and send them back across the boarder with their tails between their legs.