United States (US) will be sending cluster munitions package to Ukraine to aid in its counteroffensive against Russia.
It is to be noted that cluster munitions are a class of weapon that contain multiple explosive bomblets called submunitions, and has been banned by more than 100 countries.
These munitions are controversial because of their failure, or dud, rate, meaning unexploded bomblets can remain on the ground for years and detonate later.
Further, it is worth mentioning that the cluster munitions US will be sending to Ukraine have a dud rate of less than 2.5%, describing that as far below Russia’s cluster munition dud rate, which US officials say is between 30-40%.
Besides, as per the reports circulating, US is also planning to send artillery shells to Ukraine, with each containing 88 separate bomblets.
They would be fired from Howitzer artillery weapons already deployed by the Ukrainian army.
Last month, US has approved latest additional security assistance / weapons package for Ukraine which is worth $500 Million (£626m) to meet its critical security and defense needs.
It includes additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems; stinger anti-aircraft systems; 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds; 30 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles; 25 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers; and anti-mine equipment, to name a few.
This authorization is the Biden Administration’s forty-first drawdown of equipment from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.
