Harshita Mathur, Pune
On Thursday, July 13, senior military officials from both the USA and Ukraine broke their silence and stated that the Ukrainian armed forces have officially received cluster munitions from the United States, which would be an asset to boost the former’s military capabilities and strategy against Russia.
The commander of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, in an interview with CNN, said: “We just got them, we haven’t used them yet, but they can radically change (the battlefield)”.
Amid worries about the long-term danger delivered to civilians by bomblets that fail to detonate, the United States said this week that it will deploy cluster bombs to Ukraine to help in its fight against invading Russian soldiers. Tarnavskyi additionally stated that Russia, too, is aware of the importance that these munitions have for the country and how they can bring a much-needed improvement to the Ukrainian defense strategies and activities against Russia. The commander also stated that Russia’s assumption that Ukraine would deploy these munitions in densely populated areas is “wrong”.
Joe Biden, the President of the United States, expressed his dilemma and stated that this move was a “difficult decision,” but nevertheless, they helped Ukraine as it was necessary to ensure that they could counter the attacks from Russia by having enough ammunition to replenish their depleted stocks. In light of this situation, Russia’s power center, the Kremlin, has stated that if these ammunitions are used against Russian troops, they will resort to “countermeasures.”
Cluster munitions, often known as cluster bombs, are canisters containing several hundred small bomblets, known as submunitions. These canisters can be dropped from aircraft, launched by missiles, or fired by artillery, naval guns, or rocket launchers. According to the US Army’s armor website, the DPICMs Washington has sent to Kyiv can be launched from 155-mm howitzers, with each canister having 88 bomblets. A solitary canister, with a deadly range of around 10 sq m, has the ability to cover an area of up to 30,000 sq m.