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Biden agrees to send cluster bombs to Ukraine despite concerns

President Joe Biden has agreed to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, fulfilling a key request from President Volodymyr Zelensky despite concerns from arms control groups and human rights activists about the potential harm to civilians.
Biden agrees to send cluster bombs to Ukraine despite concerns

The Biden administration will announce that it’s providing Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions as part of a new military assistance package set to be unveiled on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The administration’s decision was reported earlier by National Public Radio.

The US would send cluster bombs with “lower dud rates”, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, told reporters, while stopping short of confirming the controversial weapons will be sent to Ukraine.

Comments (5)

Paul Caiger Jul 10, 2023, 04:05 PM

Think of the misery Russia has brought to the world in the last 110 years - the tragedy of communism and then the Russian Oligarchs has left the whole of Central Asia and many other countries in a mess with misery being the only policy Russia has ever followed. It's time that Good triumphs over evil and these oligarchs and their political cronies in Cuba , Belarus , South Africa and elsewhere must be removed permanently . Only then can Russia and the countries devastated by the Russian policies return to normality and peace.

Craig King Jul 8, 2023, 07:08 AM

And the ratchet goes up one more notch. The unthinkable gets closer to being justified.

belyeujohn4 Jul 7, 2023, 08:00 PM

The Ukrainians are faced with a well dug in territorial aggressor who has laid huge swaths of mine fields (land/anti-personnel mines also have been sanctioned by many countries and it is documented to use their own cluster munitions in the course of their aggression). One of the best ways to overcome pervasive mine fields and dug in positions is the use of cluster munitions. I say. go for it in this case.

LOUISE NIEHAUS Jul 7, 2023, 03:56 PM

Well done President Biden - long overdue now get the F16 Fighter Jets into the Ukrainian airspace and let the heroic Ukrainian Armed Forces fight fire with fire - the only language that the Putler understands. Slava Ukraini

Cunningham Ngcukana Jul 7, 2023, 12:15 PM

The problem with war it has very serious implications for human rights and the concerns are correct but the Ukrainians who are killed by drones and missiles in their homes, hospitals, restaurants, schools, streets and churches deserve every weapon they can get to deal with the Russian terrorism. They will be able to deal with the aftermath of these weapons later. The trench warfare requires these weapons to send a message to the thug in Moscow as he has no respect of the human rights of Ukrainians. Let the occupiers get the taste of their own medicine and the human rights organisations can go to Putin and raise many concerns on human rights in that country.