2023-07-07 21:43:00
A Ukrainian soldier holds a deactivated cluster bomb dropped by the Russian Army in the Khrkov region. CLODOGH KILCOYNE | Reuters
Germany opposes and NATO says it is up to each ally to decide
07 jul 2023 . Updated at 9:43 p.m.
The new military aid package that he is preparing USA for Ukraine has sown controversy in the international community. Valued at 800 million dollars —about 734 million euros—, it will contain cluster bombsa weapon prohibited in more than a hundred countries due to its terrible capacity for destruction against military but also civilian positions.
The announcement of the controversial measure comes at a time of doubts about the Ukrainian counteroffensive due to its slowness and the ammunition available. It is not enough, Kiev’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov warned this week, aware that arms manufacturing is failing to meet the incessant demand as the war reaches its 500th day.
The decision of the Government of Joe Biden has evidenced the dissenting voices that exist among the countries that support Ukraine in the conflict and that have already been heard on previous occasions, such as in the debate —today almost forgotten— opened months ago regarding the sending of of F-16 fighters to the Kiev forces. Cluster bombs, however, are a much more thorny issue, so much so that their use is considered a war crime and, therefore, one of the arguments for bringing Russia before the International Criminal Court.
It is not just any weapon: neither because of the surface it reaches, nor because of the tiny size of its submunitions, capable of slipping through the smallest crack, nor because of the explosive power long after its launch, which multiplies the risks for the civilian population. In fact, the Convention on Cluster Munitions sealed in 2008and collected by the United Nations, prohibits the use, development, production, acquisition, storage and transfer of this weapon that Washington has not reported in what quantity it will supply to Kiev.
The US is one of the countries that opted to stay out of this international treaty, the same as Ukraine and Russia. More than a hundred nations, including Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia and South Africa, on the other hand, decided to put a stop to these bombs that can be dropped by artillery or aircraft. Germany also ratified the document and this Friday it was the first European State to show its rejection of the movement of the North American Executive. I have followed the media reports. For us the Oslo agreement applies, settled the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock. The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also been against it.
The Alliance’s position
NATO, in which Ukraine has been claiming a seat for months, was in charge this Friday of remembering that cluster munitions are already used by both sides in Ukraine. The difference is that Moscow uses it to perpetrate a war of aggression and an invasion and Kiev does it to defend itself, argued its secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who curiously was the one who promoted the 2008 convention when he was Norway’s prime minister. Now it has left the decision to supply the controversial bombs in the hands of the allies, since there is no common position in the military organization on the matter. Some partners have signed the treaty and others, like the US, remain on the sidelines.
The shipment of US cluster bombs will be the first weaponry development Ukraine has received since the UK gave the go-ahead for the delivery of Storm Shadow missiles. The Zelenski government did not rule this Friday on the decision of the United States.
Filed Under: War in Ukraine
#Sending #cluster #bombs #drives #gap #military #support #Ukraine