US to Be Responsible for Civilian Deaths by Supplying Cluster Munitions to Kiev: Moscow

15:20, 8 July 2023

On July 7, Assistant to the US President for National Security Jake Sullivan announced that the United States had decided to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine, the use of which is opposed by the UN. He also noted that Kiev had provided Washington with written guarantees of the use of American cluster munitions with minimal threats to civilians.

Sputnik

The US decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine will put civilians at risk, and Washington will share responsibility for those killed due to the explosions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

According to her, Ukraine's promises to use these indiscriminate weapons "carefully" and "responsibly" are worthless, and Washington understands this.

"Civilians will be under attack, as it happened every time more and more deadly US-NATO weapons systems were transferred to Ukraine," the statement on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Zakharova noted that the experience of using cluster munitions in the Middle East and other regions of the world shows that their components can remain unexploded for a long time and detonate after the end of hostilities.

"By supplying cluster munitions, Washington will actually be complicit in mining the territory and will fully share responsibility for the victims of the explosions, including Russian and Ukrainian children," the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry added.

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In addition, the official stated that the United States' decision to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine is intended to prolong the conflict.

"The decision of the administration of [US President] Joe Biden to supply the regime in Kiev with cluster munitions is another blatant manifestation of the US's aggressive policy against Russia, aimed at prolonging the conflict in Ukraine to the maximum term and the war until 'the last Ukrainian'," Zakharova said in a statement.

She slammed the deliveries as "a cynical attempt to prolong the agony of the current Ukrainian authorities without regard to civilian casualties" and "a sign of weakness in the face of the failure of the touted Ukrainian 'counteroffensive.'"

The steady expansion of military deliveries, designed by the US administration to "raise the stakes" in the conflict as much as possible, means that Washington and its allies are becoming increasingly involved in the hostilities, Zakharova added.

"Another 'miracle weapon,' on which Washington and Kiev are betting, without bearing in mind the grave consequences, will have no effect on the course of the special military operation, the goals and objectives of which will be fully met," Zakharova concluded.