2023-07-20 22:04:32
Mother Teresa campaigned against nuclear bombs in Hiroshima. Princess Diana, against antipersonnel mines in Angola. Who will lead the campaign to eradicate cluster bombs, which are already exploding over the skies of Ukraine?
Those that US President Joe Biden authorized at the beginning of the month, and accelerated their delivery after meeting with Volodimir Zelenski at the NATO summit in Lithuania, arrived at their destination last Thursday, according to the Pentagon. This Thursday it was learned that Kiev is already using them against Russian troops in those areas where it needs to take the lead, without caring about the danger it represents to the civilian population or the reprisals with which Vladimir Putin has threatened.
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“In Europe there is nothing left, they have a shortage of ammunition, and nothing better has occurred to them than to propose the use of cluster bombs,” Putin determined last Sunday. The Russian president assures that his country is not using them in Ukraine because it has “sufficient reserves”, although he warns that, “of course, if they use them against us, we reserve the right to pay with the same coin.” However, different international observers have assured that Moscow has already used these projectiles.
The Kremlin is not wrong when it says that Ukraine is consuming ammunition at a faster rate than the US can manufacture it. The reality is that these cluster bombs will serve as a bridge for the production of artillery larger than 155 mm, as confirmed by Brigadier General Pat Ryan, a Pentagon spokesman. In order to do so by overcoming the 2017 ban that prevents him from transferring them, Biden has had to resort to a clause on national security interests in the Foreign Assistance Act.
Banned by 120 countries, Moscow has used them 24 times during the invasion, according to the UN
According to a United Nations report, Russia has used them in Ukraine on at least 24 occasions. “For more than a month the population of Ukraine has been living this nightmare,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said last March.
Cluster bombs are banned in 120 countries, but neither the United States, Russia nor Ukraine are part of that convention. They are especially dangerous for the civilian population because when they explode in the air they disperse a large number of small bombs over an area equivalent to several football fields. A percentage of these devices – which according to the Pentagon is less than 2.35%, but which the US Government Accountability Office itself raises to 26% – remains unexploded and is especially dangerous for civilians and children. The UN raises the percentage of unexploded cluster bombs to 40%, leading to “decades of intermittent detonation.”
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To calm the general conscience, the White House has forced the Ukrainian government to commit in writing to carry out clean-up tasks in the future, such as those that Princess Diana visited in Angola months before her death, in this case of demining. Furthermore, kyiv has promised to use them only in isolated areas where they are essential to contain Russian troops.
“Ukraine is not going to be using these munitions in a foreign country, but in its own,” recalled the White House National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, at a press conference, insisting that the Zelensky cabinet will handle them in a way that “minimizes the risk to its own civilians.” As a climax, Washington insists that all Ukrainian territory will have to be demilitarized and cleared of explosives when the war ends, because Russia is using this type of ammunition “from the beginning.”
A “tough decision”
President Biden admitted that it was “a difficult decision”, which has not even satisfied those who defend greater military cooperation with Ukraine to provide it with the winning hand. “Rather than transferring cluster munitions, which are highly controversial and undermine solidarity with allies, Washington should focus its energy on finding other creative ways to provide Ukraine with precision munitions and artillery to repel Russian aggression,” the Arms Control Association said in a statement.
The military advantage of these bombs is obvious in dealing massive damage to the bombed enemy and being able to penetrate their armored systems. Yet very few believe that there is a single type of weapon capable of drastically changing the course of warfare.
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