The green light of Pentagon has arrived and so that of the White House. And now the Washington Post confirms what the New York Times had already anticipated: the request of theUkraine of sending cluster bombs by the United States received the approval of the president Joe Bidenthus circumventing a US law that prohibits the production, use or transfer of “cluster bombs” with a failure rate greater than 1%. A spokesman for the American defensethe general Patrick Ryderhe announced that the United States they will “carefully select” the ammunition in cluster per the Ukraine so that they have an error rate of 2.35% or less, referring to the percentage of sub-munitions carried by each shell that would remain unexploded. Cluster munitions fit into a further aid package to Ukraine from 800 million dollars which will also include armored vehicles Bradley e Strykeras well as a variety of munitions, such as howitzer shells and High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems (Himars).
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Human Rights Watch he urged the Usa to refrain from sending them and the Russia e the Ukraine to “immediately stop” using these weapons, which transform the area on which they are launched into a huge minefield. They can remain unexploded and endanger civilians years after a conflict has ended. I am planned ordnance to activate when they are still at altitude, after having been dropped from aircraft or fired from artillery systems, and release hundreds of small bombs in the area that will indiscriminately hit a more or less large area of territory. So it’s not about weapons defenceBut say offense. More than 120 nations have joined the convention banning them, with the exception of United States, Ukraine e Russia. Italy signed the convention in 2008 and ratified it in 2011, with entry into force in 2012.
The projectile in question and its failure rate – The main weapon under consideration, a M864 artillery shell first produced in 1987, it is fired by howitzers from 155 mm that the United States and other Western countries have supplied to Ukraine. In its latest available estimate, dating back more than 20 years, the Pentagon claimed that those bullets had a 6% failure rate, meaning that at least four of each of the 72 submunitions carried by each shell would remain unexploded in an area of approximately 22,500 square meters, roughly the size of four and a half football fields. “We are aware of reports from several decades ago indicating that some 155mm shells have higher failure ratessaid a defense official, one of seven Pentagon, White House and military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive decision. The Pentagon now claims it has new ratingsbased on tests performed in 2020, with failure rates not exceeding 2.35%.
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Stoltenberg: “The states decide on sending cluster munitions” – It was the same woman who urged the sending of cluster bombs presidency Ukraine and even today the presidential adviser to Zelensky Mykhailo Podolyak came back to stress on Twitter that “in war the number of weapons counts”, urging the allies to send them. And he also specifically emphasized “cluster munitions.” “In the great bloody war going on for 16 months which will predetermine the future of the world, whether it will be lawless (Russian) or will exist after all the international law, the number of weapons matters. So, weapons, more weapons and even more weapons, including cluster munitions,” Podolyak tweeted, urging people to avoid discussions about “Russian plans and concerns”. As for the location of the Nato the general secretary Jens Stoltenberg he specified that he does not have one, because “some allies” have signed the UN convention which bans them, and “others do not”, therefore “it is up to the individuals States” decide which weapons and ammunition to supply to Ukraine. Cluster munitions, he said, “are already used in the war in Ukraine by both sides: the difference is that the Russia use them for attack and invade Ukraine, while Kiev uses them to protect itself from the aggressor“, he continued, specifying that he believes that they are defensive weapons. “All allies agree that we must provide military support to Ukraine: exactly what kind of weapons e you ammunition” are delivered in Kiev “varies by country and will continue to vary,” he concluded Stoltenberg. For his part Berlin has already stated that the Germaniaamong the signatory countries of the Conventionwill not send them, but at the same time the German government spokesman, Steffen Hebestreitat the press conference stated that “our US friends have not taken the decision lightly” to provide them, and underlined the extraordinary nature of the contingency: “We are dealing with a special context in this situation. Ukraine use its ammo to protect yours civilian population. It is a use by the government Ukrainian to liberate their territory,” he said Hebestreit. “We should also remember that the Russia it has already used cluster munitions on a large scale in a war of aggression against Ukraine that violates international law”.