WASHINGTON, July 7. /TASS/. The United States is poised to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions that pose the least threat to the civilian population, Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said at a briefing on Thursday.
When detonated, cluster munitions scatter dozens of small bomblets over a large territory. If unexploded, these bomblets will present a threat for civilians for years to come. When asked how would Washington explain the transfer of these munitions, provided that they are banned in dozens of countries due to their potential hazard, Ryder replied: "I will say we have multiple variants of DPICM in our stocks."
"The ones we are considering providing will not include older variants with dud rates higher than 2,35%. We're aware of reports out there several decades ago that indicate that certain 155mm DPICMs have higher dud rates, so we would be carefully selecting rounds with lower dud rates," he said.
A number of Western media, including The New York Times newspaper, the Reuters news agency and the CNN television channel, reported on Thursday that a formal announcement about providing Ukraine with cluster munitions will be made on Friday, July 7.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions was signed in 2008 and took effect in 2010. By now, 111 countries have joined it. Another 12 nations have signed the document, but not yet ratified it.
According to Human Rights Watch, the real dud rate of cluster munitions is often way higher than formally declared by the military. This leads to numerous casualties among the civilian population.