The US will send cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of a new military aid package, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed on Friday, reported CNN.
The move follows months of debate within the Biden administration about whether to provide Kyiv with the controversial weapons banned by over 100 countries, including key US allies.
“I’m not going to stand up here and say it is easy,” Sullivan was quoted as having told reporters. “It’s a difficult decision. It’s a decision we deferred. It’s a decision that required a real hard look at the potential harm to civilians. And when we put all of that together, there was a unanimous recommendation from the national security team, and President Biden ultimately decided, in consultation with allies and partners and in consultation with members of Congress, to move forward on this strategy.”
President Joe Biden approved the transfer of the munitions this week, officials told CNN. CNN first reported last week that the administration was strongly considering the move, as Ukrainians forces have struggled to make major gains in their counteroffensive against Russia.
The munitions will be compatible with the US-provided 155 mm howitzers, a key piece of artillery that has allowed Ukraine to win back territory over the last year, according to the Pentagon.
In a statement announcing a new round of aid to Ukraine, the Defense Department said the US will be providing “155mm artillery rounds, including DPICM,” or Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions – the type of cluster munition the US currently has in its stockpiles.
Cluster munitions scatter “bomblets” across large areas that can fail to explode on impact and can pose a long-term risk to anyone who encounters them, similar to landmines.
Over 100 countries, including the UK, France, and Germany, have outlawed the munitions under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but the US and Ukraine are not signatories to the ban.
Ukrainian officials have been pushing the US to provide the munitions since last year, arguing that they would provide more ammunition for Western-provided artillery and rocket systems, and help narrow Russia’s numerical superiority in artillery.
Biden was reluctant at first, officials told CNN, given how many countries worldwide have banned the munitions.
But changing battlefield conditions inside Ukraine over the last three weeks prompted US officials to give them renewed and serious consideration, and the Pentagon recommended to Biden that the munitions be provided to Ukraine at least on a temporary basis until non-cluster ammunition is able to be resupplied, officials said.
Russia’s Ambassador to Belarus Boris Gryzlov said the US decision was “a move of desperation.”
“As part of the continued assistance to the Kiev regime, Washington is considering the possibility of sending cluster munitions to Ukraine. There has been talk about it since spring,” Gryzlov was quoted as having told Russian state news agency TASS on Friday.
The US has increased its assistance to Ukraine in recent months. In May, Biden informed G7 leaders that the US will support a joint effort with allies and partners to train Ukrainian pilots on fourth generation aircraft, including F-16s.
In January, Biden officially announced that the US will send 31 M1 Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine, reversing months of persistent arguments that the tanks were too difficult for Ukrainian troops to operate and maintain.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)