US Expected to announce it will send cluster Munitions to Kyiv

Rescue workers assess the damage left by a Russian missile that struck an apartment building in Lviv, Ukraine, July 6, 2023. At least four people were killed. [Reuters]

The Biden administration is considering sending cluster munitions to Ukraine to help it in its war against Russia, U.S. officials said, in a move that will likely anger human rights groups.

The controversial weapons are fired from a cannon and release dozens of "bomblets" across a wide area. They can cause harm long after the fighting has ended. Cluster munitions are banned by 123 countries because of the risk they pose to civilians - but the United States, Ukraine and Russia have not banned them.

The cluster munitions are expected to be part of a new U.S. aid package to Ukraine that is to be announced Friday.

Provision of cluster munitions to Ukraine "is something that is under consideration," Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said Thursday.

Ukraine and Russia are using their own cluster munitions on the battlefield. But Kyiv has been asking Washington to send cluster munitions because its forces are running low on ammunition. So far, the United States has resisted providing the cluster munitions because of the risk to civilians.

But now, U.S. officials reportedly believe cluster munitions would be useful in the fight against Russia. Laura Cooper, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, recently testified to Congress that these munitions would help Kyiv press through Russia's dug-in positions.

U.S. law requires a presidential waiver to export cluster munitions if more than 1% of the bomblets they hold usually fail to explode. That figure is known as the "dud rate."

"We have multiple variants ... in our stock and the ones that we are considering providing would not include older variants with dud rates higher than 2.35%," Ryder said.

"We would carefully be selecting rounds with lower dud rates" based on testing from 2020, he added.

A U.S. decision may be announced as soon as Friday, according to National Public Radio.

Earlier Thursday, a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, killing at least four people and injuring nine others.

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said the missile also damaged about 60 apartments and 50 cars. Sadovyi described the attack as the largest against the city's civilian infrastructure since Russia's invasion began last year.

"There will definitely be a response to the enemy. A tangible one," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

Lviv is near Ukraine's border with Poland, far from the frontline areas in eastern and southern Ukraine that have been the focus of much of the recent fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces.

Ukraine counteroffensive

In an interview with CNN broadcast on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said he wanted to launch a counteroffensive earlier, but that the timing was dependent on getting military aid from Ukraine's U.S. and European partners.

Ukraine began the counteroffensive last month, aiming to reclaim territory occupied by Russia since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.

Ukrainian officials have sought ammunition and more advanced weapons, including air defense systems and fighter jets, in order to match up with Russia's military capabilities.

"I wanted our counteroffensive to happen much earlier, because everyone understood that if the counteroffensive unfolds later, then a bigger part of our territory will be mined," Zelenskyy told CNN. "We give our enemy the time and possibility to place more mines and prepare their defensive lines."

He reiterated his case for Ukraine to receive F-16 fighter jets, saying having the planes is not about gaining an aerial advantage, but rather "being equal" to Russia's forces.

Denmark said last week that training for Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s had begun.