U.S. decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine could put Canada, others on the spot
CBC
The United States has decided to send cluster munitions to Ukraine to help its military push back Russian forces entrenched along the front lines.
The Biden administration is expected to announce on Friday that it will send thousands of them as part of a new military aid package worth $800 million US, according to people familiar with the decision who were not authorized to discuss it publicly before the official announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.
But the move will likely trigger outrage among humanitarian groups and criticism from NATO and European Union allies of Ukraine long opposed to the use of cluster bombs.
Here is a closer look at the issue.
A cluster munition is a bomb that opens in the air and releases smaller "bomblets" across a wide area. The bomblets are designed to take out tanks and equipment, as well as troops, hitting multiple targets at the same time.
The munitions are launched by the same artillery weapons that the U.S. and allies have already provided to Ukraine for the war — such as howitzers — and the type of cluster munition that the U.S. is planning to send is based on a common 155 mm shell that is already widely in use across the battlefield.
The dud rate refers to the percentage of unexploded rounds. In previous conflicts, cluster munitions have had a high dud rate, which meant that thousands of the unexploded bomblets remained behind and killed and maimed civilians. That's happened recently in conflicts in Syria and Yemen, but the grisly impact can be felt decades later, as seen in parts of Southeast Asia, where people are still killed by explosives from the Vietnam War.
A 2009 U.S. law bans exports of cluster munitions with bomblet failure rates higher than one per cent, but a U.S. president can waive the prohibition.
Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder at the Pentagon said Thursday "the ones that we are considering providing would not include older variants with [unexploding] rates that are higher than 2.35 per cent."
Canada has considered itself a leader in the international movement to limit the damage that weapons like landmines and cluster munitions can cause to war-torn communities.
The Canadian government helped spearhead a movement that led more than 100 countries to sign the Ottawa Treaty in December 1997, and dozens more joined in the years after.
Canada is also among the more than two-thirds of NATO countries who are signatories to a 2010 convention on cluster munitions banning their use, production or stockpiling.
Within days of the Ukraine war getting underway in February 2022, Canada's mission to the United Nations in Geneva expressed concern with allegations that Russia was using cluster munitions, resulting in civilian casualties.
As well, Canada has long touted its efforts to demine and sweep countries of unexploded ordnances, including an initiative announced just months ago to support projects in Cambodia and Laos.