WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is expected to announce it will give cluster munitions to Ukraine for its fight against Russia’s invasion, the New York Times reported.
The decision was expected to be announced on Thursday, an NPR reporter said in a Twitter post on Wednesday.
The U.S. military believes that cluster munitions would be useful for Ukraine in pushing back against Russian forces, a senior Pentagon official said in June, but they had not been approved for Kyiv yet because of congressional restrictions and concerns among allies.
Ukraine has urged members of Congress to press President Joe Biden’s administration to approve sending Dual-Purpose Conventional Improved Munitions (DPICM).
The cluster munitions, banned by more than 120 countries, normally release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area, threatening civilians.
Both Russian and Ukrainian forces have used cluster munitions that have killed Ukrainian civilians, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Christina Fincher and Gareth Jones)
