A Pentagon official has told Congress that controversial cluster munitions Ukraine has been seeking from the US would be “useful” to Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.
Cluster bombs scatter small submunitions over large areas, making them especially hazardous to civilians. Because of their indiscriminate nature, cluster munitions have been banned by more than 100 nations.
But the US, Ukraine, and Russia are not parties to the treaty, known as the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Both sides in the current conflict in Ukraine have reportedly used cluster bombs, and Kyiv was using them against populated areas of Donestk in the Donbas war going back to 2014.
Ukraine has been asking the US to send cluster munitions that are in Pentagon stockpiles, and the Biden administration has been under growing pressure from Republicans in Congress to oblige the request. Now, the Pentagon appears to have come out in favor of sending Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM), a cluster munition with several variants, including a 155mm artillery round.
“Our military analysts have confirmed that DPICMs would be useful, especially against dug-in Russian positions on the battlefield,” Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, told the House Armed Services Committee.
According to POLITICO, senior Biden administration officials had previously said they were not sending cluster munitions to Ukraine but now are more ambiguous about the idea, signaling they are more open to providing the controversial bombs. A US official told POLITICO that, at this point, no decision has been made.
Kids and adults pick them up and then lose their hands or their lives. Evil.
They’re as bad as land mines. The US never signed a treaty to ban them. The Late Princess Diana tried to ban them but had no success.
Cluster bombs along with depleted uranium is a scorched earth tactic. Poison the ground and make it dangerous especially for kids. Despicable.
One must wonder if the land was in Western Ukraine if the Kiev regime would be so anxious to utilize such weapons.
For those who do not know it, the Russians is using cluster bombs in Ukraine, so this while a problem for the future is not Ukraine or NATO escalating things just evening the odds.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/29/cluster-munition-use-russia-ukraine-war#:~:text=Since%20Russia's%20full%2Dscale%20invasion,homes%2C%20hospitals%2C%20and%20schools.
If NATO hadn’t attacked, Russia wouldn’t have need to.
Surely you mean if Russia hadn’t attacked, as NATO has not attacked anyone in the SMO.
You turn your dog on me, so I should blame the dog??
So are you claiming that Ukraine attacked Russia in late February 2022? Just asking seeing as not even the Russians are claiming this!
The Ukraine Nazis, like the Mujahadin in Bosnia, ISIS in Syria, … are just NATO dogs. It’s foolish to blame the dog. You just have to shoot it.
If the Ukrainians were biting then it was because the Russians crossed the border – they are not our dogs, but even if they were you do not have a guard dog that bites the robber shot – you shoot the robber.
They crossed the border responding to the pleas of ethnic the Russian Donbas, at the time subject to hot ethnic cleansing by the NATO trained Nazi dogs in violation of their solemn commitments in Minsk I & II.
Even if they had only crossed into the Donbas this would still qualify as the Russians trespassing on Ukrainian territory and the Ukrainians would be within their rights to defend themselves.
No evidence of these ethnic cleansings from any of the international organizations surveying the area. But what we do have is the Russians openly admitting that even in the areas they occupy the vast majority of even the ethnic Russians hate them.
Beats the dead horse again ad again, a true debater.
At the time they crossed the border, civilian deaths had been down to single-digit or low double-digit numbers per year since 2018.
“The pleas” were the excuse, not the reason.
Weren’t there massive amounts of military being amassed on the border? From both sides?
Well the Russians started in about April 2021 – I’ve heard the claim that the Ukrainians were also building up forces from the Russian side but seen no evidence to suggest that this was the case – perhaps you have some?
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/events-leading-up-russias-invasion-ukraine-2022-02-28/
Right. No troops then. I’ll take your word for it. And thanks for the synopsis. Brilliantly put together. Bad Russians.
Every war has an excuse – but usually the real reason is “follow the money” or just lust for power.
… and the 14K dead from indiscriminate shelling, and declaring the language illegal, and the water, electric, and credit? all from the illegal Washington puppet gov’t in Kiev who’ve momentarily diminished from wholesale slaughter to retail while massively arming and staging 40K troops on the border. Oh such neighborly folk.
And anyway that was only the proximate cause. Twenty yrs of economic warfare, abandoning ABM, INF, Open Skies, START, ringing her borders with nukes (‘against Iranian missiles’ of course) and hostiles, pervasive sustained campaign of Russophobia (‘killing all the dogs in Sochi’), … and a 30 yr ascendant Washington Neocon (Nazi) cabal who’s declared intention all along was to weaken and balkanize Russia and reduce her to ubermenschen within the rules based international order.
For 20 yrs Putin practiced the restraint of a saint in the face of this hostile threat and its bad faith agreements, until finally in December ’21 he put them on notice: either neutrality and human rights or war. Washington, not Russia, chose war.
What, now you’ve convinced yourself that the only shelling was by Ukrainian troops? What were the separatist and Russian troops doing that whole time? Singing Kum Ba Ya and roasting marshmallows?
Defending themselves, that’s what they were doing.
here is an excerpt from your link =
“”This briefing paper draws on a range of information collected by Human Rights Watch and other organizations, including:… “”
but there is no list of “other organizations, including”
why is that?
and another excerpt =
“”The Armed Forces of Ukraine strictly adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law.””
sure, according to The Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“we are the good guys, and you should believe us because we are the good guys!”
……. The Armed Forces of Ukraine
The point is that the Russians are already using cluster ammunition, not that ‘we are the good guys’.
well the US also uses cluster bombs and has not joined the 123 nations banning the use of them. not that we are the good guys either.
oh wait, here i have amended things =
“we are the good guys, and you should believe us because we are the good guys!”
….. uncle sam
The Kiev Regime used cluster bombs on their own population after we installed that regime.
The Russian started insurrection supported by Russian equipment and soldiers did so too – but that is rather the point – this changes very little.
The eastern Ukrainian didn’t take to being governed by haters of Russian speakers in their own country, after we installed that neo-nazi regime in Kiev, and overthrew Ukraine’s democracy.
Several points – the protests would never have amounted to more than what they did in Kharkiv or Odesa if not for the intervention of the Russians – and we have the admission of one of the Russians in charge of the intervention as evidence of this!
So while the eastern Ukrainians were far form happy at Yanukovych being ousted – they were not going to take to arms and fight a war, but would have voted in the democratic election that was held later in 2014, had the Russian intervention not prevented them.
So no we did not install a neo-nazi regime and the regime that did take over did not destroy democracy but promptly held a new election exactly because they did not have a democratic mandate to run things themselves.
Minus participation by the parts of the country that wanted to maintain democracy and not follow a foreign-installed radical regime.
Minus the parts of the country where the Russians had started an armed insurrection – and installed a Stalinist government. They were prevented from voting by your Russian friends.
Stalinist – pathetic characterization.
Possibly, not my characterization though but that of people living there.
…..and you agree then that “the people living there” characterize the installed regime in Kiev as Hitlerian?
They don’t – anyway I would not trust them to characterize anything but their own regime.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1673856877841764352
Elections cancelled, in your “freedom and democracy” regime in Kiev.
Not cancelled but not held in accordance with the constitution – there is a very clear difference, but we can always trust people like you, Tucker and Putin not to know it.
The US started the insurrection business in Kiev in 2014.
If they did they didn’t send troops unlike the Russians.
They didn’t need to.
Exactly! They did not because it was a popular revolt not a foreign led coup.
But we’re the exceptional good guys who would never stoop to the autocrat’s level. Joe told me so.
and for those who do not know it, the US used cluster munitions in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iraq and other places. Now we want to make the makers of them richer by killing more civilians.
For those who do not know the cluster munitions being debated here are already bought and payed for and kept in depots – the only question is whether to destroy them or ship them to the Ukrainians so they get a fairer fight with the Russians.
For those who do not know it, you seem to be a big supporter of the neo-nazi installed Regime.
I’m a supporter of the Ukrainian’s right to choose a government by themselves as they have done in 2014 and again in 2019 – I was not a supporter of the transition government which took over when Yanukovych left in early 2014.
The neo-Nazi attitudes are now well and truly on the Russian side – you know the side you seem to be a big supporter of – the kind of people who would condone beheadings of unarmed POW’s.
Good to know – and you 100% felt that way before the democratically elected government was overthrown with our help?
But it was not overthrown with US help – it was overthrown against the will of the people e.g. Victoria Nuland talks about in the leaked phone call and against the deal that was brokered with the help of the Obama administration – do you know nothing about this?
Obviously you are sticking to your false narrative to justify the Regime in Kiev.
I do not need to justify the government in Ukraine – it is a democratically elected government. I did not justify the interim government which took over after Yanukovych fled the country as it was not a legitimate government, about the only thing they did right was to schedule a new election to get to a legitimate government.
They did choose a government, but it was overthrown in 2014 with US instigation, help, and logistics. Maybe you would be loyal to a government voted to power by a democratic vote, and just sit by pledging allegiance to an installed Regime whose first act was to make the Russian language illegal and sending it’s military into those areas who don’t like government by coup,especially when it was helped along by a foreign power. You would have made an ideal Quisling in an earlier era.
I know your history stops in March 2014 – but the real one does not, and in that world the Ukrainians chose a new government later that same year and again in 2019. If you knew your history you would know that Quisling also was not elected.
Your history started in 1938. If you knew your history, you would know that when violent coup overthrows the democracy, an election is no different than the ones in your nazi Germany.
So Putin is not a legitimate ruler – nor is very many other democratically elected leaders in other countries we ordinarily say are democracies. Your definition makes it impossible for most of the countries of the world to change forms of government is there has ever been a regressive step in their history – so not a useful definition.
You’d also be a pro vote for giving the Gazans some nukes to make it a fairer fight?
If you are asking about arming that Palestinians then yes – though not for giving them or the Ukrainians nukes.
Fairness dictates reciprocal armaments for both sides you posited.
I posited that fairness required reciprocal armaments only to the extend that these were already in use – as I’ve said before read what is written not what you think people say.
Sentence after the one you highlighted in your linked “Human Rights Watch” article:
“The Ukrainian military has not denied credible evidence of its own use of cluster munitions in the conflict and has publicly asked to be supplied with the weapon.”
Also, Human Rights Watch is funded almost entirely by Western foundations, and its impartiality in this case (which pits almost the whole Western world against Russia) is thus open to question.
A more accurate statement would have been, “Even according to HRW, which has a severe pro Western, and hence pro Ukrainian, anti Russian, conflict of interest, the Ukraine ALREADY is using and has been using cluster bombs. Also, HRW claims that Russia is doing so, as well.”
I never denied that the Ukrainians used cluster ammunition too – the difference is that the Ukrainians have more or less run out while the Russians have not. Or in other words you are arguing with yourself or HRW.
HRW is a joke. Entirely funded by Western interests. Including, despite their lies and obscurifications, Western governments.
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/human-rights-watch/
http://www.nobelpeacesummit.com/human-rights-watch-is-roundly-criticized-by-human-rights-activists/
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202103/1216969.shtml
The pressure group was formed, as “Helsinki Watch,” with the explicit mission of engaging in one sided, anti Russian activities. And hasn’t changed much over the years.
Soooo, what HRW says about Russia in a negative way, I heavily discount. What it says in a negative (even if grudging) way about the Ukraine, is much more likely to be true. Hence the formulation I suggested, as opposed to your gullible or, more likely, conplicit mere parroting of HRW’s “findings.”
Try reading what I write it might save you from having an argument with yourself or the HRW.
Well then let’s give every US citizen over the age of 18, a firearm.
Don’t they pretty much have one already? The question here is if others were shooting at them not giving them one would be worse than giving them one.
This routine with Biden’s sensitive conscience has got just a bit threadbare.
“come on man!”
… Biden
Don’t challenge me to push-ups.
He doesn’t have one.
Send the bloodwhore Laura Cooper to the front lines…
Let Victoria Nuland, Antony Blinken, Volodomyr Zelensky and Joe Biden go with her.
Let Victoria Nuland, Antony Blinken, Volodomyr Zelensky and Joe Biden go with her.
Pentagon Says Cluster Bombs Would Be ‘Useful’ for Ukraine
and profitable for Bombs-R-Us inc.
US has no problem with the principle of clearing land of undesireable people. Zelenski is a single-dimensional person with a simple goal of removing all traces of Russian ethnic or Orthodox Christian majority in the guise of eliminating “Russianness”. Who does he reallyb intend to reward as the new master race — not clear yet.
In the nane of getting rid of non-Ukrainian, Russian culture and language — he is exterminating essentially what is a MAJORITY population. This is human reengineering on massive scale, and it is easier to not notice it.
Using undesireable Ukrainians as cannon fodder? No problem.
Preventing them from having organized voice through associating or media? No problem?
Eliminating influencers, like teachers, prominent businessmen, lawyers? No problem.
Making example if those that dared show their identity by armbands — like in Bucha? No problem.
Rescuing children from orphanages where children were trafficked for sex and organs — big problem! World’s top court is holding Putin personally responsible for “kidnapping” children!
We would all rather not know. Cluster munitions? Of course! Land is wanted without wrong kind of people — that has been made amply and repetedly clear.
Why cannot we hear all this loud dissonance? Because we lost capacity to hear a range of sounds, thoughts and words.
We are daily reducing vocabulary of this very Orwelian conflict to the allowable dictionary. If this suceeds, a whole range of new models and tools will be available for other reengineering projects.
Somehow even the ethnic Russians in Ukraine and even in the by the Russians occupied parts seem to disagree with your view of Zelenskyy’s goals (perhaps because Zelenskyy is himself ethnic Russian) and as a consequence somewhere near 80% of them hate the Russian occupiers – and that is according to Russian state TV.
If that video is claimed to be Russian state TV, you are incorrect. This is the description of your so-called Russian state TV:
Russian Media Monitor is a fully independent and self-funded project on media literacy and news reporting. It was created on February 25, 2014, in an effort to combat Russian propaganda.
And its location is California.
Here’s some US state media for you, using that terminology like you did:
If you are trying to claim that this was not what was transmitted on Russian state tv then why do you not say so?
The channel in question merely provides translation – are you claiming that it was translated wrongly or that this was never transmitted on Russian state TV?
Or are you merely being an idiot?
I’m saying that the website carrying that idiocy is not Russia State-media. As if you didn’t know that. And the leader of that pathetic website is associated with the liberal Interventionist Daily Beast.
“somewhere near 80% of them hate the Russian occupiers ” and you actually believe that because one person in that debate said so? Your post implied that Russian State media said that.
When you have a source that is providing so-called translations, you have no idea if the translation is correct or not, also.
I know that, and I use this as people in general do not understand Russian so, unless your claim is that it is wrongly translated or that it was never aired then basically you are just an idiot.
The leader could be the devil himself unless what is reported is inaccurate as in translated wrongly, was never aired or has been cut to alter what was said you basically have nothing – these people are being ‘hung’ by their own words – bot by what ‘the leader of that pathetic website’ says.
Try arguing this like you actually had a case.
I already did and it wins and stop feigning ignorance.
You mean like this is what they actually said on Russian state TV and the only fault you could find with it was that it was translated by someone you do not like, though you cannot claim that it was translated wrongly or that it was never aired – that kind of win?
No – when you use the term Russian-State TV what was the channel? Do you also call CNN/MSNBC/Fox US-State TV too?
I use the term Russian State TV because it is owned primarily by the Russian state – I would use US state TV about news organizations that were primarily owned by the government or state in the US.
I use it as there is a clear indication that this is RT as translated by Russian Media Monitor on YouTube, and if you or anyone else can spot clips provided by me that have been cut to twist the meaning of what was being said I would be very interested to debate it – so far none have found anything.
Not RT
Primarily owned by the Russian state hence Russian state TV
Sleaze for sale again?
… and you accept the translation because that’s what you want to listen to.
You are welcome to challenge it, my wife happens to speak Russian, so from time to time I ask her to verify the translations – so far I have not found them to be misleading.
I cannot say that this is what I want to listen to – it is mostly quite surprising how paranoid and often clueless they are. I guess it ought to make me happy as you see it, but it actually does not – as I would like peace their attitudes do not bode well for that goal.
I think that you demonstrate quite well how dishonest you are when you compare my usage of translated material from Russian State TV to your: “Here’s some US state media for you, using that terminology like you did” as:
1) Judge Napolitano – Judging Freedom is not a state owned news source
2) Judge Napolitano does not merely translate US media content for the Russian viewers
But do not let that prevent you from demonstrating your ignorance.
Stop being such an argumentative little turd just to be an argumentative little turd.
A few passes by a flight of Tu-95 bombers loaded with cluster bombs over Western Ukraine should send a pretty pointed message. Two can play that game, and Ukraine’s got a heck of a lot more to lose.
“Pentagon Says Cluster Bombs Would Be ‘Useful’ for Ukraine Cluster bombs endanger civilians by scattering small bombs across a large area and have been banned by over 100 countries”
Once again the evil empire America has little regard for human life, especially Slavic people.
Here is a good read on this topic.
Creating Russophobia: From the Great Religious Schism to Anti-Putin Hysteria
https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Russophobia-Religious-Anti-Putin-Hysteria/dp/B07QFBX564/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2O364SAZNV4JD&keywords=creating+Russophobia&qid=1687817654&sprefix=creating+russophobia%2Caps%2C371&sr=8-1
You know, Biden is a frigging war criminal – at heart. It’s in his blood and goes all the way back in his unimpressive career in politics.
He’s been on board with every dirty stunt pulled by this government over decades.