Ukraine uses US-supplied cluster munitions
Ukraine has been using US-supplied cluster munitions since last week, according to the White House. Washington assures that these weapons have “a real impact on the Russian defensive formations”, which Kiev seeks to destabilize as part of its counteroffensive.
A military “exercise” was carried out by Russian forces in the northwestern Black Sea, Moscow said, indicating that anti-ship missiles were fired to shoot down a target at sea.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet fired anti-ship cruise missiles “at a target boat in the combat training area in the northwestern part of the Black Sea”, a body of water where Moscow has since Thursday considered ships bound for Ukraine as “potential military boats”.
05:21: Kiev is using cluster munitions supplied by Washington, White House says
Kiev has begun using the controversial US-supplied cluster munition, the White House has said, as Ukraine seeks to build momentum in its counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Asked whether Washington’s cluster munitions were now being deployed and used by Kiev, John Kirby, a White House spokesman, said, “Yes.” According to Kirby, the deployment of these weapons to the front took place “in the last week or so”.
Ukrainian forces “use them correctly. They use them effectively and they really have an impact on Russian defensive formations and defensive maneuvers” from Moscow, the spokesman told reporters.
Cluster munitions can disperse up to several hundred small explosive charges that can remain unexploded in the ground and pose a risk to civilians after a conflict has ended.
They are banned by many countries, especially European ones, which have signed a convention signed in Oslo in 2008, to which neither Russia, the United States nor Ukraine are parties.
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Reuters
