Cluster Munitions in Ukraine

Ukrainian servicemen prepare to fire at Russian positions in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

"The Ukrainians have asked for it -- other European countries have provided some of that, that Russians are using it. There's a decision-making process ongoing."

"It's going to be very difficult. It's going to be very long [the Ukraine/Russia conflict]"

"No one should have any illusions about any of that."

"[The U.S. has been considering providing cluster bomb munitions] for a long time."

U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

 

"[With the cluster munitions], Ukraine will finish this war much faster, to the benefit of everybody."

"Russia is extensively using the old styles, the most barbaric styles, of cluster munitions against Ukraine."

"Personally, I was a victim of this. I was under this shelling. So we have all the right to use it against them."

Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko

A Ukrainian military serviceman holds a defused cluster bomb from an MSLR missile, among a display of pieces of rockets used by the Russian army, October 21, 2022.  Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

Russian troops, pointed out General Milley, are using the munitions in the battlefield in Ukraine. Other allies, he stressed, have made cluster bombs available to Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces have deployed the arms. Dismissing concerns that the Ukraine summer counteroffensive is proceeding too lethargically, he said he felt the initial campaign would take six to ten weeks. 

That some U.S. officials are expressing concern relating to what they see as the slow pace of the counteroffensive, deliberations on whether to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions have arisen, in the knowledge that any such decision to provide that type of armaments would raise opposition from other allies, as well as from humanitarian groups. The United Kingdom, France and Germany are signatories to the cluster munitions ban.

One Ukrainian lawmaker contended that fully 30% of Ukrainian territory is mined, a matter Ukraine is deeply aware of, taking care to de-mine when they deploy troops in those areas.  Last August, the US State Department announced their intention to provide $89 million in support of de-mining efforts in Ukraine; a State Department official noting "this is a challenge that Ukraine will face for decades."

 

Cluster bombs are particularly problematic, weapons which open while airborne, releasing submunitions ('bomblets') which are then dispersed over a large area, intended to wreak destruction on multiple targets. They can be delivered by plane, artillery and missiles. The 'bomblets' have a high rate of failure to explode; up to 40 percent in recent conflicts, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

 

Russia has used them widely in bombing raids against rebel-held areas of Syria, with predictable results. In Yemen, the Iran-sponsored Houthi Islamists have dispersed anti-personnel mines everywhere in the countryside, presenting an ever-present danger to the unwary, including civilians and children and farmers attempting to tend to their fields. De-mining operations are extensive and given the wild proliferation of these devices can seem hopeless. 

A Ukrainian citizen removes a Russian cluster munition rocket from a field in the Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine. Justin Yau / Sipa via AP

 

While most Western observers and officials refrain from public statements relating to Ukraine's counteroffensive progress, growing sentiment is arising that Ukraine must seize on the weather conditions on the ground, and that any impact last weekend's revolt in Russia may have on Russian military cohesion must have swift take-up for maximum opportunities to take advantage of the chaos that resulted.

Last week, Jake Sullivan, the Biden administration's national security adviser, received a letter from fourteen senators expressing their opinion that while they recognize the munitions could provide Ukraine an advantage on the battlefield, "we are convinced that the humanitarian costs and damage to coalition unity of providing U.S. cluster munitions would outweigh the tactical benefits."

 

Collected remnants of Russian cluster munition rockets used to attack the city of Kharkiv, at a storage area in Kharkiv, Ukraine.  Evgeniy Maloletka/AP