On Friday, July 7, US President Joe Biden approved the provision of cluster munitions to Ukraine. An official statement from the Pentagon and the White House on this matter will be made in the near future.
According to The Guardian, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive thousands of cluster shells from the US Department of Defense’s own stockpiles worth up to $800 million.
We are talking about M864 artillery shells, which the Americans began to produce in 1987. They are suitable for 155-mm howitzers, which the US and its allies previously provided to Ukraine. The Pentagon previously reported that the failure rate of these projectiles is about 6%. In other words, 4 out of 72 submunitions in one projectile will fall without exploding.
Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said that for the transfer of the Armed Forces, experts from the US Department of Defense “carefully select” ammunition with a failure rate of no higher than 2.35%.
At the same time, according to Washington, the Russian army has been using cluster munitions in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion with a failure rate of 40% or more. White House sources told The New York Times.
Previously, the Biden administration was strongly opposed to providing Ukraine with cluster munitions. The fact is that in 2008, 123 countries of the world, including most NATO members, outlawed cluster shells and bombs and banned their production and use. It is noted that they pose a great threat to the civilian population even after the end of hostilities.
Note that at that time the United States, Ukraine and Russia refused to sign this agreement.
However, a domestic law was then passed in the United States that banned the production of cluster munitions. Biden did not want, firstly, to violate this law, and secondly, to arrange a discussion within NATO, which would be beneficial to the Kremlin.
Since December 2022, Ukraine has been persistently asking the United States to provide it with cluster munitions.
“The Russians use three to four times more artillery shells of various calibers than we do. Cluster shells are effective, and they will allow us to make up for this difference. The Russians use them against us, so for our self-defense we have every right to use the same ammunition,” - said the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov.
He assured that Ukraine would use cluster shells only in open areas and after the de-occupation of cities, so as not to harm the civilian population.
Changes in Washington’s position were first announced in June. Then Pentagon spokeswoman Laura Cooper, speaking before the US Congress, said that in terms of effectiveness on the battlefield, the use of cluster munitions by Ukraine would be useful.
And finally, an important decision was made. Biden uses a very rarely used mechanism to implement it. It is written into the Foreign Aid Act, which allows the president to send weapons to a foreign country, regardless of restrictions, as long as it is for the benefit of US national security.
I would like to hope that such a decisive step on the part of the 80-year-old US president will have a positive impact on his participation in the 2024 elections.
Source: Fakty
I am Joseph Zeman, a journalist who mostly covers world news for the Daily News Hack. I pride myself on being able to find and report stories that others might miss. I have a knack for being able to see both sides of every issue and this allows me to provide readers with well-rounded stories. In addition to my work as a journalist, I am also an author and have written several books on current affairs.
