White House says provision of cluster munitions to Ukraine by US ‘under active consideration’

The provision of cluster bombs to Ukraine by the United States is “under active consideration”, the White House has said.

The US military believes that cluster munitions could be useful for Ukraine in dealing with Russian “dug-in positions on the battlefield”. However, cluster munitions – which generally release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area and endanger civilians – are banned by about 120 countries.

Ireland played a key role in drawing up an international convention in 2008 which outlawed “all use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions in order to address the humanitarian consequences and unacceptable harm caused by their use”.

The human rights organisation Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged the US not to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine. It also called on Russia and Ukraine to stop using such weapons.

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The White House said on Thursday that it did “not have an announcement to make at this time” regarding the transfer of cluster bombs to Ukraine. However the news agency Reuters, citing US officials, said Washington planned to send cluster munitions to Ukraine to help its battle against the Russian invasion.

It said a military aid package that included cluster munitions fired by a 155mm Howitzer cannon was expected to be announced on Friday.

Reuters said that to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, US president Joe Biden would need to sign a waiver. This would be similar to one signed to allow for cluster munitions technology to be exported to South Korea in 2021.

The new $500 million US military aid package for Ukraine is also expected to include ammunition for high mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars) as well as Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker armoured personnel carriers.

In June, Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defence for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, told politicians on Capitol Hill that the Pentagon believed cluster munitions would be useful for Ukraine, “especially against dug-in Russian positions on the battlefield”.

The US, Ukraine and Russia have not signed up to the convention on cluster munitions agreed in Dublin in 2008.

Human Rights Watch said Ukrainian and Russian forces had both used cluster munitions that caused numerous civilian deaths and serious injuries. It described cluster bombs as “inherently indiscriminate” weapons.

The new US military aid package for Ukraine to be announced this week will be the 42nd it has approved since the Russian invasion began in February last year. Overall the US has provided Kyiv with military assistance worth more than $40 billion.

Mr Biden will next week attend a Nato summit in Lithuania, which is expected to be dominated by the war in Ukraine.