The cluster bombs that The United States will send to KyivThey have been for decades in the crosshairs of organizations promoting human rights and defenders of arms control, who consider that they should be illegal due to the great danger they pose to the civilian population.

the explosive device It is banned in more than a hundred countries and it has already been used in the war in Ukraine by both Russian and Ukrainian troops, causing civilian deaths and serious injuries to survivors.

What are cluster bombs?

Cluster bombs were first used in World War II (1939-1945). They were designed to destroy multiple dispersed military targets, such as tank or infantry formations, and cause death or injury to combatants. Specifically, they consist of a container that opens in the air and disperses a large amount of explosive submunitions or “bomblets” sOver a wide area, which can reach a radius of between 200 and 400 meters.

Some models can release more than 600 submunitions that are designed to explode upon impact with the ground, although some do not detonate and remain buried. Those “bomblets” that remain in the ground can pose a danger to the civilian population that is comparable to land mines, since they can explode years later when a civilian passes through the area, causing death or serious injuries, according to the Committee Red Cross International.

In statements to Efe, Gabriela Iveliz Rosa Hernández, a researcher for the Association for Arms Control (ACA), has indicated that these ammunition that remain buried could even endanger the lives of the Ukrainian forces as they They return to the recovered territories.

Who has used them in Ukraine?

Human Rights Watch (HRW) assures that both Russia and Ukraine have used this type of weapon in the war in Ukraine, but assures that Moscow uses it more frequently than Kyiv. According to HRW, Russia has resorted to such weapons on several occasions.

One of the incidents that the organization has investigated is the one that occurred in April 2022, when a Russian ballistic missile equipped with a cluster munitions warhead exploded over the crowded Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine, killing people. of at least 58 civilians. Ukrainian forces, according to a March United Nations report, also used cluster bombs in 2022 in the city of Izium, in eastern Ukraine.

Why are they banned in over a hundred countries?

Its indiscriminate nature and its risks to civilians have generated widespread rejection by the international community of its use. In 2008, the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty to ban the use and manufacture of cluster bombs, was adopted and entered into force in 2010 upon reaching the minimum number of 30 ratifications required.

According to the text, the remains of this type of bombs “kill and maim civilians, including women and children,” “they prevent post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction” and “they delay or prevent the return of refugees”, among other things. So far, 123 countries have ratified or at least signed the Convention, including several NATO members such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain.

At the time of its entry into force, in 2010, the then Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, said that this new instrument represented a “step forward for global disarmament“Then the BBC picked up. However, the main military powers, such as the United States, Russia and China, have not signed the agreement, nor have countries such as Ukraine, Israel, Pakistan or India.

What is the US position?

Washington has a complicated relationship with cluster bombs: it stopped using them in Afghanistan in 2002 and in Iraq in 2003, and in 2008, for humanitarian reasons, the Government of President Barack Obama (2009-2017) agreed to remove all bombs at a rate non-explosion -those that fail and remain buried- greater than 1%.

However, with the Administration of Donald Trump (2017-2021) Obama’s plan was canceled due to the “clear military utility” of cluster munitions, according to what the then Undersecretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said in 2017, who reflected the opinion of the Pentagon, which has always been reluctant to abandon this type of weapon.

However, the decision of the Joe Biden government to give the green light to sending cluster bombs threatens to strain relations with the rest of the Atlantic Alliance countries, ACA executive director Daryl Kimball recently wrote.

In a press release published on Thursday, before confirming the decision, Kimball said that the shipment of this type of ammunition would be “counterproductive and would only increase the risks for civilians trapped in combat zones and for those who will one day return to their cities, towns and farms.”