The White House has confirmed that Ukraine is using US-supplied cluster munitions against Russian forces.
The cluster bombs are in Ukrainian hands and being deployed in the field as part of Kyiv’s battle against Russia, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday.
It comes almost two weeks after the US confirmed it was sending thousands of the controversial weapons to Ukraine.
The bombs are banned in more than 100 countries. They typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Those that fail to explode pose a danger for decades.
“We have gotten some initial feedback from the Ukrainians, and they’re using them quite effectively,” Mr Kirby said at a news briefing.
Ukraine has pledged to use the cluster bombs only to dislodge concentrations of Russian enemy soldiers.
“They are using them appropriately,” Mr Kirby said. “They’re using them effectively and they are actually having an impact on Russia’s defensive formations and Russia’s defensive manoeuvring. I think I can leave it at that.”
Reacting to the US decision to send the bombs, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country had similar weapons and they would be used “if they are used against us”.
The US decided to send cluster bombs after Ukraine warned that it was running out of ammunition during its summer counter-offensive.
US President Joe Biden called the decision “very difficult”. Its allies such as the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Spain opposed their use.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak discussed the US decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine with Joe Biden during his visit earlier this month.
The UK is signed up to an international convention to ban the weapons, placing Mr Sunak under a duty to speak out against their use, but the US, Russia and Ukraine are not signed up to that agreement.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said providing the weapons “was a difficult choice for the US” that had been “forced on them by Russia’s war of aggression”.
The two leaders “discussed the commitments that UK has under that convention, both not to produce or use cluster munitions and to discourage their use”.
The cluster munitions are included in a new $800 million package of military aid the US will send to Ukraine.
The weapons will give Ukraine a highly lethal capability and also allow them to strike more Russian targets using fewer rounds.
Ukrainian general Oleksandr Syrskyi told the BBC that his forces needed the bombs to “inflict maximum damage on enemy infantry”.
He said the cluster bombs would not “solve all our problems” but added: “If the Russians didn’t use them, perhaps conscience would not allow us to do it too.”
Russia and Ukraine has accused the other of using cluster bombs in the conflict launched by Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
The last large-scale American use of cluster bombs was during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to the Pentagon. But US forces considered them a key weapon during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, according to Human Rights Watch.
Marta Hurtado, speaking for the UN human rights office, said this month that “the use of such munitions should stop immediately and not be used in any place.”
