(7 Jul 2023)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4443427
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Nabatiyeh, Lebanon - 12 September 2011
1. STILL of activists and international delegations standing next to cluster bomb units
HEADLINE: THE U.S. WILL PROVIDE CLUSTER MUNITIONS TO UKRAINE
ANNOTATION: President Joe Biden's administration has decided to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine for the war against Russia.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Marandua, California - 7 May 2009
2. STILL of explosives experts of Colombia's Air Force defusing a cluster bomb
ANNOTATION: The decision comes despite concerns that the bombs have a track record of causing mass civilian casualties.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Ouazaiyeh, Lebanon - 9 November 2006
3. STILL of a cluster bomb unit containing more than 600 cluster bombs
ANNOTATION: A cluster munition is a bomb that opens in the air and releases smaller “bomblets” across a wide area.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Majdal Selm, Lebanon- 12 September 2006
4. STILL of unexploded missiles and cluster bombs
ANNOTATION: The bomblets are designed to hit multiple targets at the same time.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Donetsk, Russia - 14 October 2014
5. Smoke rising over Donetsk
6. Artillery shells
ANNOTATION: The U.S. last used cluster munitions in Iraq in 2003, but stopped using them as the conflict shifted to environments with more civilian populations.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Kyiv - 26 August 2014
7. Various of Ukrainian military volunteers
ANNOTATION: The Pentagon says it will provide munitions that have a reduced “dud rate,” meaning fewer unexploded rounds that can result in civilian deaths.
STORYLINE:
The Biden administration will provide thousands of cluster munitions to Ukraine, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday, vowing the U.S. will not leave Ukraine defenseless and that Kyiv has promised to use the controversial munitions carefully.
The decision comes on the eve of the NATO summit in Lithuania, where President Joe Biden is likely to face questions from allies on why the U.S. would send a weapon into Ukraine that more than two-thirds of alliance members have banned because it has a track record for causing many civilian casualties.
The munitions — which are bombs that open in the air and release scores of smaller bomblets — are seen by the U.S. as a way to get Kyiv critically needed ammunition to help bolster its offensive and push through Russian front lines. U.S. leaders debated the thorny issue for months, before Biden made the final decision this week.
Sullivan defended the decision, saying the U.S. will send a version of the munition that has a reduced “dud rate,” meaning fewer of the smaller bomblets fail to explode.
The unexploded rounds, which often litter battlefields and populated civilian areas, cause unintended deaths.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, some cluster munitions leave behind bomblets that have a high rate of failure to explode — up to 40% in some cases.
The rate of unexploded ordnance for the munitions that will be going to Ukraine is under 3% and therefore will mean fewer unexploded bombs left behind to potentially harm civilians.
The cluster munitions are included in a new $800 million package of military aid the U.S. will send to Ukraine.
Friday’s package, which will come from Pentagon stocks, will also include Bradley and Stryker armored vehicles and an array of ammunition, such as rounds for howitzers and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, officials said.
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