US to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions as part of new aid package

Speaking at a press briefing at the Pentagon, the US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Colin H Kahl, informed that the US will send a new weapons aid package that will contain 155m artillery rounds, including Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM), The Guardian reported on Friday.

Additional munitions for Patriot air defence systems and ammunition for HIMARS systems, additional Stryker armoured personnel carriers, precision aerial munitions, demolition munitions and systems for obstacle clearing are also included in the aid package.

Kahl said that Russian forces have been using cluster munitions “indiscriminately” since the start of the war in Ukraine. By contrast, Ukraine is seeking DPICM rounds “in order to defend its own sovereign territory”.

The US will be sending Ukraine its “most modern” dual-purpose cluster munitions with “dud” rates to be under 2.35%, Kahl added.

Kahl explained that there were two primary reasons behind the decision to include cluster munitions in this latest weapons aid package to Ukraine.

One is the “urgency of the moment” as Ukraine is in the midst of its counteroffensive which has been difficult and slow.

“We want to make sure that the Ukrainians have sufficient artillery to keep them in the fight in the context of the current counter offensive, and because things are going a little slower than some had hoped,” the top-ranking US defense official pointed out.

Earlier Jake Sullivan, the US president’s national security adviser, told reporters at the White House that the decision was difficult and “required a real hard look at the potential harm to civilians”. 

“Ukraine would not be using these munitions in some foreign land,” Sullivan said. “This is their country they’re defending. These are their citizens they’re protecting and they are motivated to use any weapon system they have in a way that minimizes risks to those citizens.”

He added that Russia had been using these weapons to attack a sovereign country, and to strike after civilian targets, in violation of international law.

“Crucially, there is a big difference between the type of cluster munition being used by Russia and the type that the US would provide to Ukraine, " Sullivan commented.