The monitoring body Cluster Munitions Coalition (CMC) wrote on Monday that cluster bombs have killed more people in Ukraine than any other country in recent years. The increase has occurred since Russia invaded in 2022. But the number of killed and injured is probably a dramatic understatement, according to the authors. Cluster munitions are bombs or grenades that open in the air and launch smaller explosive charges over a large area. It is often in the hundreds. Unexploded small bombs like this are often packed into larger rockets that open up high in the air. They are actually supposed to explode when they hit the target, and can therefore be unstable on contact. Photo: FLORENT VERGNES / AFP A known problem with these explosive charges is that many do not explode when they hit the ground. They therefore have the potential to harm civilians for a long time afterwards. Curious children and farmers who plow the land are often held up as typical victims. The USA has sent cluster munitions to Ukraine 112 countries, including Norway, have signed an international ban on the use, production and storage of cluster munitions. But neither Russia, Ukraine nor the United States have signed. Last year, the USA received harsh criticism from several countries because they started sending cluster munitions to the Ukrainian military. Both Ukraine and Russia use them. – It is a decision we are postponing. It is a decision that required a very careful look at the potential damage to civilians, said the US’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan, according to CNN. Here, the remains of Russian rockets will be inspected in Kharkiv in the winter of 2022. Several of these are cluster rockets, writes the AP news agency. Photo: Libkos / AP Ukraine asked several times to be sent cluster munitions for the counter-offensive last year. The ruling authorities gave as a reason for the wish that Russia had more of both soldiers and artillery weapons, writes The Guardian. American security expert: – Was all it said that Mark Cancian is a senior adviser at the security program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC He wrote in an email to news that Ukraine decided last year that it was worth taking the chance. – The Ukrainian authorities considered that the danger of a military defeat was greater than the dangers that come with unexploded cluster munitions, he said. A man in Yemen shows off an American CBU 58A/B cluster bomb. The United States has collected such in case of emergency, Cancian says. Photo: Hani Mohammed / AP – The US had sent all the regular artillery charges they were willing to get rid of from the existing stockpile. This amounted to approximately 1.5 million, he says. – Cluster munitions were all that was left. The US had kept a collection for use in case of emergency on the battlefield, but had not used them for many years. Recorded the most at the start of the war Before the war, Ukraine had not registered any deaths as a result of cluster munitions for several years. Now more than a thousand have been registered. But the authors of the CMC report say there may be “significantly more” than they are aware of. Russia has indeed taken responsibility for several attacks with cluster weapons in places the CMC has not been able to verify, says one of the authors to AFP. There is also documented use of cluster munitions here, in Kramatorsk in Ukraine. How many are actually killed in such attacks, CMC believes it is difficult to quantify. Photo: ARIS MESSINIS / AFP How the death toll is distributed also portends major challenges for Ukraine after the war is over. Approximately half of the registered dead and injured worldwide in 2023 were exposed to actual attacks. The others were hit by unexploded ammunition. This applies to nine different countries. But in Ukraine there are more unexploded parts of cluster bombs in agricultural areas than landmines, the report says. This warning sign stands on a field in Yahindne, Ukraine. The picture was taken while the US Secretary of State was visiting the area in 2023. Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AP Lithuania has withdrawn from the agreement The authors of the CMC report are particularly critical of the authorities in Lithuania, which in July chose to withdraw from the agreement on prohibition. They border Russia, and gave as a reason that the neighboring country still uses the weapons in the war. – It would be a mistake for a country that pretends to defend itself, to determine what measures it is not willing to use, Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas said at the time, according to Reuters. – With this vote, we are making the defense of Lithuania stronger, said Kasciunas when the national assembly voted to withdraw from the agreement. Photo: DANIEL ROLAND / AFP The foreign minister in Norway, Espen Barth Eide, described the election as “regrettable”, and added: – Although the security situation in Europe has changed as a result of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, it is crucial that the states keep their duty to on prohibiting the use, storage and transport of this type of weapon. Are you interested in more from the Foreign Affairs Directorate? Listen to our latest radio broadcast: Published 09/09/2024, at 22.37 Updated 10.09.2024, at 21.38
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Warns of large dark numbers among cluster bomb deaths in Ukraine – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
