Biden Justifies “Difficult” Cluster Munitions to Ukraine
Biden Justifies “Difficult” Cluster Munitions to Ukraine
It was a difficult choice, but “the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition” in the fight against Russian forces, Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday, defending his decision to give cluster bombs to the Ukrainian government. Cluster munitions are illegal in many of the countries that are the United States’ closest allies.
Mr. Biden has been debating whether or not to provide the weapons, which are capable of dispersing small, lethal bomblets over the battlefield, for a number of months. It is common for youngsters to be the ones to pick up bombs that did not explode when they were first dropped, and these devices have been known to inflict severe damage months or even years after the conflict has ended.
At the end of the day, the president came to the conclusion that removing the weapons from Ukraine would equal to rendering the country defenceless against Russia. He said that it was just a stopgap measure to tide Ukraine over until the manufacturing of conventional artillery ammunition could be scaled up.
Mr. Biden stated in an interview with CNN that “it was a very difficult decision on my part” and “by the way, I discussed this with our allies, I discussed this with our friends up on the Hill.” “The Ukrainians are rapidly running out of ammunition.”
“And so, what I finally did was take the recommendation of the Defence Department to — not permanently — but to allow for this transition period,” he continued. “And so, what I finally did was take the recommendation of the Defence Department to allow for this transition period.”
This move marked a breach with some of the United States’ closest friends, which prompted to criticism from Democrats, who voiced fears that the weapons put the United States’ moral position at danger. This might make it more difficult to show unity when Mr. Biden visits a NATO conference the following week in Lithuania, which is scheduled to take place there.
The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, sidestepped the subject of whether or not he thought it was prudent for the United States to deliver the weaponry to Ukraine.
Mr. Stoltenberg stated to the journalists present at the NATO headquarters in Brussels that the decision-making authority over the shipment of arms and other military equipment to Ukraine resides with each individual ally. Therefore, this will be up to the respective governments to determine, and not the NATO alliance as a whole.
Officials from the United States have stated that Russia has used cluster bombs in Ukraine during the majority of the conflict there. They have also been utilised by the Ukrainians, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has been putting pressure on Mr. Biden to provide him with more in order to flush out the Russians who are buried into trenches and impeding the counteroffensive that the Ukrainians are attempting to launch.On Friday, Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security advisor, informed reporters at the White House that Ukraine had made a direct demand for the weaponry a few weeks ago. Sullivan said this in response to a question from one of the reporters.
The statement that “Ukraine would not be using these munitions in some foreign land” was made by Mr. Sullivan. This is their nation that they are fighting to save. They are driven to employ any weapon system they have in a way that minimises threats to the population that they are tasked with safeguarding, as it is their citizens that they are tasked with defending.
According to Mr. Sullivan, the Ukrainians have pledged to use the weaponry in a way that would not harm people, but he noted that there are no guarantees about this vow.
He said, “The battlefield is always changing,” and that statement is absolutely true.
When it comes to supplying Ukraine with cluster bombs, a significant number of the United States’ allies have drawn the line. The United States, Russia, and Ukraine are the only three countries that have not signed a treaty that prohibits the use of the weapons; nevertheless, Germany and France are among the more than 100 nations that have done so.
Officials in the United States considered that cluster munitions may be valuable on the battlefield, which is one of the reasons why they chose not to join the accord. According to the Cluster Munition Coalition, which is a campaign that is working to put a stop to the use of weapons like cluster bombs, the United States employed cluster munitions throughout the war in Iraq. During the conflict in Yemen, Saudi Arabia utilised cluster bombs that were manufactured in the United States until the United States put a halt to the sale of these weapons out of concern for the safety of Yemeni civilians.
