Ukraine is looking for cluster bombs, which are known to cause severe harm to people, as its ammunition supply runs short.
President Biden and his advisors have been debating one of the trickiest issues in the Ukraine conflict for more than six months: whether to take the chance of depriving Ukrainian forces of the artillery rounds they desperately need to fight Russia or to agree to send them cluster munitions—widely outlawed weapons known to seriously injure civilians, especially children.
On Thursday, it seemed as though Mr Biden was about to provide the cluster bombs to Ukraine, a move that would set him firmly apart from several of his closest friends who have ratified a convention that forbids the use, storage, and transfer of such weapons.
Despite what they have characterised as their own strong objections, some of Mr. Biden's top advisers, including Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, urged him make the move during a meeting of top national security officials last week, according to people familiar with the conversations. They asked to remain anonymous so they could discuss delicate decisions.
Due to both humanitarian concerns and concerns that the United States would be much behind its partners, the State Department was the final holdout.
Now, Mr. Biden's staff feels they don't have much of a choice. The supply of conventional artillery rounds is running out for Ukraine, which has used cluster bombs of its own in the conflict, and it will take time to build up manufacturing. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has consistently pressed Mr Biden, claiming that the weapons, which distribute small, lethal bomblets, are the best means to eliminate Russians who are holed up in trenches and obstructing Ukraine's counteroffensive to recover land. According to a senior American official, it is now obvious that the weapons are "100% necessary" to address the demands of the present battlefield.
However, Mr. Biden and his advisers have attempted to delay the decision for months in the hopes that the war's tide would shift in favour of Ukraine. One of the worries has been that by employing a weapon that most of the world has condemned and that Russia has abused carelessly, the United States would look to lose its moral superiority.
Additionally, the administration was aware that deploying the weapons to Ukraine would be extremely controversial with both Mr. Biden's own party members and friends; throughout the years, many Democrats have led the movement to forbid the use of the weapons by American forces. Five days into the conflict, Jen Psaki, who was the White House press secretary at the time, was questioned about the deployment of unconventional weapons by Russia, including cluster bombs. That may be a war crime if it were the case.
The use of cluster munitions, which release tiny bombs that spread throughout the landscape, is prohibited under a 15-year-old pact that has been ratified by more than 100 countries. The weapons, which are designed to detonate upon impact, have resulted in hundreds of fatalities and injuries, many of which have been youngsters who have picked up faulty devices that did not detonate during the first attacks but exploded hours or even days later.
Several officials said they anticipated Mr. Biden would provide his final approval soon, despite the White House's assertion on Thursday that he hadn't made a decision. Given that Mr. Biden is travelling to Europe the next week for a NATO conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, the timing is difficult. It also happens at a time when the US is making preparations to eliminate more dangerous weapons, including its final remaining chemical arsenal.
In 2008, the majority of Washington's closest allies, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, ratified the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions. The convention has never been signed by the United States, Russia, or Ukraine because they consider that there are situations in which using the weapons is necessary, despite the possibility of suffering significant civilian fatalities.
According to authorities, Mr. Biden was persuaded after the Pentagon presented the case that it would provide Ukraine a "improved" version of the weapon with a "dud rate" of around 2% of all shots fired.
Russian cluster bombs have a failure rate of at least 40%, according to authorities, and have been used extensively in Ukraine throughout the conflict, posing a significantly greater threat. Despite having a smaller arsenal than Washington, the Ukrainians have also deployed cluster bombs.
According to several bomb specialists, American cluster bombs have much greater failure rates than the Pentagon claims.
"If they land in water, soft ground like ploughed fields and muddy areas, that can certainly impact the reliability, causing higher dud rates," said Al Vosburgh, a retired Army colonel with bomb disposal expertise and the director of a foundation dedicated to humanitarian mine action.
Human Rights Watch published a thorough analysis on the deployment of cluster bombs in Ukraine on Thursday morning. The organization's acting armaments director, Mary Wareham, claimed that "Cluster munitions used by Russia and Ukraine are killing civilians now and will continue to do so for many years." "Both sides should stop using them right away and refrain from attempting to acquire more of these indiscriminate weapons." In actuality, the Ukrainians have been employing the weaponry from the beginning of the conflict, frequently on their own soil.
According to American officials, the Ukrainians' decision to use force, no matter the cost, rather than live under Russian domination has become a crucial consideration in Mr. Biden's thinking.
In order to help with the cleaning of unexploded bombs, American authorities also claim that they will collaborate with Ukraine to track where the weapons are being utilised.
Months were spent by Biden administration officials trying to gather enough conventional artillery shells to continue striking against Russian positions. The Pentagon predicts that Ukraine will run out of ammunition after persuading South Korea to contribute hundreds of thousands of rounds and using American artillery shell stocks kept in Israel.
American officials think Mr. Putin is wagering that his forces will be able to take advantage of that opportunity to win.
American officials stated in interviews that they anticipated the shipping of the cluster munitions to be a temporary measure, until the manufacturing of conventional artillery rounds could be scaled up, most likely by the spring of next year.
At its core, the conflict in Ukraine has been an artillery warfare, with both sides launching massive quantities of shells at fortified lines of soldiers in the east and south of the nation. When Soviet-era shells ran out early in the conflict, Ukraine mostly switched to using artillery systems and ammunition that were given by the US and its allies.
The Pentagon regularly informed the White House that the United States was sitting on a mountain of untapped munitions that might lessen the pressure on the artillery shortages during this international struggle to keep Ukraine stocked with ammunition: cluster munitions.
And for months, according to Pentagon sources, the White House resisted, claiming there was no need for the weapons and raising worries about their deployment.
U.S. officials have signalled a shift, however, since Russia's defences against Ukraine's counteroffensive have shown to be more robust than anticipated.
Late last month, Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defence for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, informed U.S. senators that the Pentagon had assessed that Ukraine would benefit from using cluster bombs, "especially against dug-in Russian positions on the battlefield."
The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Mark A. Milley, said last Friday that the Biden administration was considering sending to Ukraine cluster bombs and a potent weapon known as the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS. Up to this point, Mr. Biden has declined to dispatch the missile system, in part because the weapon might penetrate far into Russia.
Even though the United States has spent more than $40 billion in armaments, ammunition, and equipment since the conflict began, Mr. Zelensky has continued to call for more weapons in a series of recent interviews.
Ammunition is obviously the first problem, Mr. Zelensky said in a May interview with The Washington Post.
In a broadcast on CNN on Wednesday, Mr. Zelensky said that strong Russian defences have "slowed down" Ukraine's counteroffensive and that it would have begun "much earlier" had Western weaponry come more quickly.
**This blog is inspired by an article published in The New York Times, on July 6, 2023. The read the original The New York Times article click the link below