US defends delivery of cluster bombs to Ukraine

American President Joe Biden on Friday defended what he said was a “difficult decision” to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, a move that the administration said insisted is key to the fight.
The move is buttressed by Ukraine’s promise to use the controversial munitions “carefully”. The decision came just ahead of the NATO summit in Lithuania, where President Biden is likely to face questions from allies on why the US decided to send a weapon into Ukraine that more than two-thirds of alliance members have banned owing to its track record for causing many civilian casualties. “It took me a while to be convinced to do it,” the American president told the media. Biden added that he ultimately took the Defense Department’s recommendation to deliver the bomb and discussed the matter with allies and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. He said “the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition” and the cluster bombs would help provide a temporary fix to stop the onslaught from Russian tanks.
The move has been met with divided reactions from lawmakers—some Democrats have criticised the plan while Republicans backed it. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to Twitter to thank Biden for “a timely, broad and much-needed defence aid package” that will “bring Ukraine closer to victory over the enemy, and democracy to victory over dictatorship.” Cluster bombs—which open in the air and release scores of smaller “bomblets”—are seen by the US as a way to get Kyiv “critically needed” ammunition to bolster its offensive and push against Russia’s front lines. The issue was debated over for months before Biden announced the decision this week. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington will send a version of the munition that has a reduced “dud rate,” meaning fewer of the smaller bomblets fail to explode.