WASHINGTON: The United States announced on Friday that it will send Ukraine widely-banned cluster munitions as part of a security assistance package, a move Ukraine said would have an “extraordinary psycho-emotional impact” on occupying Russian forces.

Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser, laid out the case on Friday for providing cluster munitions to Ukraine ahead of an expected Pentagon announcement.

“We recognise that cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance,” Sullivan told reporters. “This is why we’ve deferred the decision for as long as we could.

“But there is also a massive risk of civilian harm if Russian troops and tanks roll over Ukrainian positions and take more Ukrainian territory and subjugate more Ukrainian civilians because Ukraine does not have enough artillery,” he said.

Rights groups oppose the decision, saying the munitions release smaller bomblets which kill non-combatants over a large area

Cluster munitions are prohibited by more than 100 countries. They typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area and those that fail to explode pose a danger for decades after a conflict ends.

“Ukraine has provided written assurances that it is going to use these in a very careful way” to minimise risks to civilians, Sullivan said.

Human rights groups oppose Washington’s decision, but the munitions could provide a boost to a Ukrainian counter-offensive to reclaim territory seized by Russian forces. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is against the continued use of cluster munitions, a spokesperson said on Friday when asked about the planned US announcement.

Germany opposes sending cluster munitions to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said. Germany is one of 111 states party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The US is not a party to the convention.

“Undoubtedly, the transfer of additional volumes of shells to Ukraine is a very significant contribution to the acceleration of de-occupation procedures,” presidential political adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Friday.

“Especially if we are talking about cluster ammunition, which is undoubtedly capable of having an extraordinary psycho-emotional impact on already demoralised Russian occupation groups,” he said.

Waiver required

Sending cluster munitions, known as Dual-Purpose Conven­tional Improved Munitions would ease a drain on standard 155 millimetre shells that Washington has been shipping to Kyiv in massive quantities.

Human Rights Watch has accused both Russian and Ukrainian forces of using cluster munitions that have killed civilians. A 2009 law bans exports of US cluster munitions with bomblet failure rates higher than one per cent, which covers virtually all of the US military stocpile.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2023