The United States is going to send another batch of cluster munitions to Ukraine in the near future to support Kiev's counteroffensive, The New York Times reported on Thursday, citing unnamed US officials.
Three US officials told the newspaper that the administration of President Joe Biden is planning to supply Ukraine with more cluster bombs, two months after the first package of the munitions was sent to Kiev.
Washington does not specify how many cluster munitions were included in the first batch out of the hundreds of thousands that the Pentagon has at its disposal, according to the report.
US officials said that Ukrainian forces fire about 8,000 artillery rounds per day, including hundreds of cluster shells. The newspaper reported that Kiev's requests for ammunition are expected to rise as many units now increasingly rely on heavy artillery to prepare for infantry advances rather than NATO-style combined arms combat, which is difficult for the Ukrainian army to master.
In July, the Biden administration sent its first military assistance package to Ukraine that included cluster munitions in a move widely criticized by human rights activists and opposed by some US lawmakers.
Cluster munitions are not equipped with self-destruction devices. According to data from the US military, 5% to 14% of such munitions may not detonate at all because they are stored for too long. As a result, they could lie around for years, much like land mines, posing a threat to civilians long after the conflict has ended.
Ukraine ratified the Ottawa Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2005, which prohibits the use, development, production, acquisition, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions.