Big impact with big risk
How Ukraine can use cluster munitions militarily
7/8/2023 4:49 am
The US decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine has drawn mixed reactions. While Ukraine thanks for the support, it hails criticism from other allies. For the counteroffensive, however, it could be good news.
It is a “timely and urgently needed defense aid package from the United States,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, commenting on the United States’ commitment to the delivery of cluster munitions. It will help Ukraine in both defending and liberating their country, he wrote during his visit to Turkey, where he met with Turkey’s head of state Erdogan.
But by no means all allies welcome the decision. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has criticized the US for its plans because he does not want “continued use of cluster munitions on the battlefield,” a spokesman said. Human rights organizations also condemn the sending of the banned cluster munitions to Ukraine. The decision was “unnecessary and a terrible mistake,” according to a British report “Guardians”.
Cluster munitions carry the risk of becoming a danger to the civilian population. They release dozens or even hundreds of smaller explosive devices, many of which do not detonate immediately. They can stay on the ground and kill or injure people decades later. They are therefore banned in more than 120 countries, including Germany. However, the US and Russia are not among them, nor is Ukraine.
High rate of duds
In addition, they are difficult to control. Cluster munitions date back to the 1940s and are fired using the same artillery that the US and other Western nations have sent to Ukraine since the beginning of the war, including howitzers. The ammunition is spread over a large area and does not always hit the enemy.
The organization Human Rights Watch published on Thursday new evidence suggesting Ukrainian forces have already injured civilians through the use of cluster munitions. At the same time, Russian forces have used cluster munitions far more frequently, which is also said to have resulted in the deaths of civilians. The information cannot be independently verified, but draws attention to the high rate of duds.
The US is aware of the risks. “That’s why we put off the decision for as long as we could,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters at the White House. It should also only serve as a temporary solution until enough artillery ammunition is available again. Ukraine has also given written assurances that the cluster munitions will be used “very carefully” in order to “minimize any risk to civilians”.
Cluster munitions offer Ukraine two advantages
Military experts, on the other hand, agree that despite the risks, cluster munitions also bring advantages for Ukraine. “It cannot be denied that the area effect of such ammunition would partially compensate for the numerical inferiority of the Ukrainian artillery,” Frank Sauer from the Bundeswehr University in Munich told the “Spiegel”.
Supporters of the delivery also argue that the massive use of mines by Russia means that Ukraine will have to clear its country of unexploded ammunition anyway. The military expert Markus Kaim from the German Science and Politics Foundation sees two main reasons for using cluster munitions: On the one hand, the Ukraine could use cluster munitions against “burrowed troops” “that have fortified themselves very strongly.”
On the other hand, the infrastructure of the opponent can be hit with it. “These can be, for example, ammunition depots, airports or transport hubs,” he told ZDF. Even with individual explosive devices, a correspondingly large effect can be achieved, which “significantly weakens” the enemy’s entire infrastructure. Austrian military expert Colonel Markus Reisner also told ntv.de that this could lead to “isolation of possible planned breakthrough sites”.
It is not yet clear what type of cluster munition the delivery is about. To reduce the risk of duds, the US reportedly wants to select modern shells that have a lower dud rate than Soviet cluster munitions. However, according to defense expert Sauer, it will not be possible to completely avoid duds. It has not yet been technically possible to construct cluster ammunition in such a way that after a certain period of time all submunitions render themselves harmless.