Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has discouraged the use of cluster bombs after US President Joe Biden agreed to send them to Ukraine.
Biden had revealed that he had “made the difficult” decision to send these bombs as the Ukrainians were “running out of ammunition”.
Instead of such ammunition, Britain is choosing to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia by providing tanks and long-range weapons.
Biden is currently in the UK for an official visit ahead of the Nato summit, which will see him discuss the matter further with the PM.
But what exactly are cluster bombs and which countries have them? Here is everything we know.
What are cluster bombs?
A cluster bomb is a type of explosive that is designed to break up into smaller bombs and fall over a large area. These smaller bombs are referred to as bomblets or submunitions.
They are dropped from the air or shot up from the ground or sea.
They are known for causing serious damage given the wide range they cover once they are released.
However, they are also dangerous because they sometimes don’t detonate upon release and stay in the ground only to explode and kill people years later. The International Committee of the Red Cross reports that submunitions’ failure rate is between 10 per cent and 40 per cent.
And a 2021 report from the Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor on behalf of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines-Cluster Munitions Coalition showed there were 141 casualties from cluster bomb remnants, 97 per cent of whom were civilians, with two-thirds of those children.
Cluster bombs were first used in the Second World War. Since then, 123 countries, including the UK, France, and Germany, have joined the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions that bans the production, transfer, stockpiling, and use of cluster weapons in all circumstances.
However, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States have not signed this convention, which means they have never legally agreed to stop using cluster weapons. Cluster weapons were heavily used in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gulf War and more.
Which countries have cluster bombs?
The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) has noted the countries that are known for being users, producers, and/or stockpilers of cluster weapons.
The countries that are known to have used cluster munitions since the end of World War II include the UK, the US, France, Israel, the Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Ukraine. However, the UK, France, the Netherlands and a number of others have since signed the Convention and stopped using these weapons.
According to the CMC, there have been 34 producers of such weapons since WWII, with 16 still believed to be actively producing them. These active producers are:
- Brazil
- China
- Egypt
- Greece
- India
- Iran
- Israel
- North Korea
- South Korea
- Pakistan
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
- Singapore
- Turkey
- United States
As for stockpilers, the CMC says that, before the efforts to ban these munitions, 93 countries had stockpiles. Some have since destroyed or have started destroying these stockpiles. However, some countries still have reserves of cluster munitions. These include the US, Ukraine, Russia, North Korea, Israel, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Cyprus.
