A group of Republican lawmakers on Tuesday sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to send cluster munitions to Ukraine for use amid Russia's special military operation there
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st March, 2023) A group of Republican lawmakers on Tuesday sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to send cluster munitions to Ukraine for use amid Russia's special military operation there.
"We write to urge you to immediately provide cluster munitions, such as dual purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM), to the Ukrainian Armed Forces," the letter said.
The letter was signed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch and Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers.
The lawmakers said supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions would help compensate for Russia's quantitative advantage in personnel and artillery rounds.
The United States has nearly three million cluster bombs in its inventory, mostly located on US bases as well as on allied bases in Europe.
The letter points out that although the Biden administration has said it fears providing Ukraine with cluster munitions could escalate the conflict, other countries have already provided such munitions to Kiev without a meaningful escalation of the conflict by Russia.
The lawmakers requested that Biden facilitate efforts to have allies send cluster munitions to Ukraine as well.
In February, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg rejected Ukraine's demands on the supply of cluster munitions, saying that the alliance delivered artillery and other types of weapons to Kiev and did not recommend deploying such bombs.
Numerous human rights organizations have said that cluster munitions pose an immediate threat to civilians during conflict as well as a post-conflict threat that effectively converts unexploded bomblets over large areas into de facto mine fields.
The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of such bombs. It also requires the destruction of stockpiles and clearance of areas contaminated by cluster munitions. More than 120 countries have joined the convention and are working to implement its provisions.
