What are cluster bombs, US sending to Ukraine and why over 100 countries have banned it? Explained
Joe Biden confirmed the decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine as part of a military aid package worth $800 million. He acknowledged the difficulty of the decision but emphasised Ukraine's need for ammunition. He also stated that he had discussed the matter with allies beforehand.
“You can feel the allies are all very uncomfortable with this," Peter Ricketts, who served as the UK’s first national security adviser, told Sky News on Sunday. “It is a hard choice of the kind that countries have to make in wartime. I am uncomfortable with it, yes I wish it wasn’t being done, but I think we can understand why they are doing it." A cluster bomb is a type of weapon that is designed to disperse smaller bombs over a large area.
They are also known as cluster munitions, with the smaller bombs referred to as submunitions or bomblets, CBC News said. Cluster bombs, employed in World War II, can be dropped from air or fired from ground/sea, dispersing dozens or hundreds of bomblets across a large area. These explosions pose a grave threat to anyone in the vicinity, causing death or severe injuries. Furthermore, some bomblets fail to detonate immediately, leaving behind unexploded ordnance that can harm or kill people for years to come. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the submunition failure rate — referred to as the "dud rate" — has varied from 10% to 40% in recent conflicts.
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