WASHINGTON — The Biden administration plans to provide Ukrainian troops controversial weapons known as “cluster munitions,” a battle tool that has been banned by more than 100 nations and lambasted by human rights groups for indiscriminately killing civilians, according to U.S. officials.
The weapons — meant for Ukraine to attack dug-in Russian forces — are modern versions that leave behind fewer “duds” that could kill civilians, U.S. officials said. The decision is significant because Ukraine has pleaded for the U.S.-made weapons for months, and appears to have made little progress in its long-awaited counteroffensive. The use of cluster munitions increases the potential for civilian casualties.
Cluster munitions — artillery shells or bombs that disperse smaller weapons known as “bomblets” — have generated international condemnation because of the indiscriminate way in which they can maim and kill. A primary concern is the “dud rate,” the number of bomblets that don’t explode on impact and become, essentially, landmines that can remain lethal for decades.
Russian and Ukrainian forces, both of whom have the weapons in their arsenals, have used cluster munitions in the war that began in February 2022, after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked, illegal invasion.
Russia, Ukraine and the United States did not sign the treaty banning cluster munitions. The Pentagon maintains that they are a necessary because they allow a smaller force, with fewer weapons, to take on a larger adversary. Until 2017, Defense Department policy had been to reduce the dud rate to 1% or less. The new policy reversed that standard and allows combatant commanders to use weapons with higher dud rates “in extreme situations to meet immediate warfighting demands,” according to a 2022 report from the Congressional Research Service.
A U.S. official briefed on the decision to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions said the shells the Pentagon plans to provide are modern versions with a dud rate of around 1%.
The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Ukraine has an urgent need for the weapons to deny Russians access to routes and destroy their armor vehicles as they try to advance or retreat. Ukraine launched its counteroffensive last month and has made incremental advances.
On Thursday, Air Force Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, without acknowledging that a decision had been made to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, said a variant under consideration contained fragments that could be used against concentrations of Russian troops.
Human Rights Watch, in a report on civilian casualties in Ukraine caused by cluster munitions, called on Russia and Ukraine to halt their use in the war. It also warned the United States against providing them, saying they will inevitably lead to long-term suffering for civilians.
“The U.S. government should not be providing cluster munitions to any country due to the foreseeable and lasting harm to civilians from these weapons,” Mary Wareham, acting arms director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Transferring cluster munitions disregards the substantial danger they pose to civilians and undermines the global effort to ban them.”
The Congressional Research Service found a wide range of dud rates. Some manufacturers claimed a failure rate of 2% to 5% while mine-clearance specializes reported rates as high as 30%. Some factors that prevent detonation include the age of the cluster munition, air temperature, landing in soft, muddy ground or getting caught in trees or vegetation.
