US cluster munitions sale to Ukraine must be stopped

The world has not really raised voice against the US proxy war going on in Ukraine since February 2022. Little effort has been made for establishing truce. On the contrary, the United States and its allies have sent the latest as well as outdated arms worth billions of dollars to Ukraine. 

The latest news is that the US is getting ready to supply banned cluster munitions to Ukraine. This shipment must be stopped to save hundreds of civilians who may dies due to its indiscriminate use.

According to Reuters, the United States announced on Friday that it would supply Ukraine with widely banned cluster munitions for its counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces.

Rights groups and the United Nations secretary-general questioned Washington's decision on the munitions, part of an US$800 million security package that brings total US military aid to more than US$40 billion since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who describes the conflict as a "special military operation" to protect Russian security, has said the US and its allies were fighting an expanding proxy war.

The cluster munitions will deliver in a time frame that is relevant for the counteroffensive, a Pentagon official told reporters.

Cluster munitions are prohibited by more than 100 countries. Russia, Ukraine and the United States have not signed on to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans production, stockpiling, use and transfer of the weapons.

They typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. 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 minimize risks to civilians, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

US President Joe Biden described the decision on cluster bombs as difficult but said Ukraine needed them.

Human Rights Watch has accused Russian and Ukrainian forces of using cluster munitions, which have killed civilians.

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov criticized the transfer of these weapons to Ukraine by the US.

"The cruelty and cynicism with which Washington has approached the issue of transferring lethal weapons to Kyiv is striking," TASS news agency on Friday quoted Antonov as saying.

"Now, by the fault of the US, there will be a risk for many years that innocent civilians will be blown up by submunitions that have failed."

Ukraine says it has taken back some villages in southern Ukraine since the counteroffensive began in early June, but that it lacks the firepower and air cover to make faster progress.

"It's too early to judge how the counteroffensive is going one way or the other because we're at the beginning of the middle," Colin Kahl, the US under secretary of defense for policy, told reporters.