Ukraine has one more tool it is already using: cluster bombs. US President Joe Biden has pledged to send an $800 million package to Ukraine, including controversial cluster munitions. With both sides unable to claim any major gains, US military leaders pushed for the vast stockpiles of cluster munitions held by the US government to be used in Ukraine.
U.S. deployment of cluster munitions is last use of US stockpiles from Iraq in 2003, having subsequently banned the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of this type of weapon. Such a munition is a type of explosive that it opens in mid-air to disperse bombs over a large area, leaving explosive residues which represent a major source of risk. Using cluster munitions often results in a “economy of power” whereby sending a few shots can have an outsized effect across a larger killing radius.
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With supplies running out, US policymakers in March urged Biden to use the country’s large stockpile of cluster munitions as a tappabuchi until he can restock other weapons. Biden says it was a decision “difficult” to take. However, demining experts often argue that the destruction rate of modern cluster munitions differs significantly from the estimates provided by the US military, with most experts stating the average destruction rate to be around 20%. For every 100,000 cluster munitions fired there will be more than 1 million unexploded bombs dropped on the Ukrainian countryside.
Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), stressed his opposition to sending cluster bombs to Ukraine, reminding the US that about 30 million cluster munitions have been dropped on Cambodia in the past during the war. Of these, between 5 and 6 million have not exploded and now cover an area of almost 700 sq km.
There are concerns regarding the methods of testing such weapons and the Pentagon’s transparency, as the tests took place in the Arizona desert, a very different terrain from Ukraine. In urban environments, the risk of civilian collateral damage increases significantly. This has been amply demonstrated in Iraq and Afghanistan, as their use has resulted in excess civilian deaths. The Biden administration took previous conflicts into account when drafting the relief package; one of its main conditions remains the rigorous application of this ammunition on military objectives.
Although 120 nations signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008 and the use of cluster bombs remains illegal on civilian targets, Ukraine, Russia and the United States are not signatories to this agreement. The Fifth Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War of 2003 supplementing the Convention on Conventional Weapons of 1980 and which sees among its contracting parties the United States of America, Ukraine and the Russian Federation, however, requires the removal of all unexploded or abandoned ordnance attacking civilians, peacekeepers and humanitarian workers after the end of the armed conflict. From this it follows that, once cluster bombs are used, there would be an inescapable obligation to remove unexploded submunitions after the end of the armed conflict.
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The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, in conjunction with the supply of cluster bombs, declared that they will be used only in Ukraine, therefore not on Russian soil or against the Russian population, but on its own soil (legally subject to its sovereignty) and to the detriment of invading military; they will not be dropped in urban areas but only in fields where there is a concentration of Russian troops; it will be logged where they are used; activities will be conducted “clearance” after the liberation of the Ukrainian territories; a report will be made to the “partners” on the use of ammunition and its effectiveness.
Given the precedents in other war areas there is little to be trusted also because the effects on civilians will be felt beyond the statements, which are not at all reassuring.