Sky News correspondent in the USA Mark Stone noted that the announced "spring counteroffensive" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not begin in the spring and did not set in the summer.
LONDON, July 8. /tass/. The US decision to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine suggests that the Ukrainian Armed Forces faced significant difficulties during the counteroffensive launched by Kiev. This opinion was expressed on Friday by Sky News correspondent in the USA Mark Stone.
"The transfer of these weapons creates clear risks for civilians - not now, but in the future. The echo of war from unexploded submunitions is evident on former battlefields around the world," Stone writes in an article published on the TV channel's website. - America also risks losing its moral superiority over Russia by supplying weapons that are banned in most countries of the world. So why supply it? Because the facts on earth do not speak in favor of Ukraine. This decision is a clear signal that Ukraine's military affairs are not going well at all."
Stone notes that the long-announced "spring counteroffensive" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not begin in the spring and did not set in the summer. It is difficult for Ukrainian troops to attack well-fortified Russian positions, and the reserves of conventional artillery shells are rapidly being depleted by both the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Ukraine's Western allies. In this situation, what Stone calls a "supply bridge" is needed - a weapon that will allow Kiev to continue fighting while the problem of the shortage of shells is being solved. The solution was cluster munitions from the Pentagon's "vast reserves".
As Stone emphasizes, Ukraine fully assumes the risks associated with the detonation of civilians on unexploded elements of cluster munitions. After the end of the conflict, the United States promises to help Ukraine in demining the territories where these weapons were used. Stone cites data from the monitoring organization on antipersonnel mines and cluster munitions (Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor), indicating that 97% of the victims from the use of cluster munitions in the world are civilians, primarily children.
Assistant to the US President for National Security Jake Sullivan said on Friday that the United States had decided to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine, the use of which is opposed by the UN. He also noted that Kiev had provided Washington with written guarantees on the use of American cluster munitions with minimal threats to civilians. In turn, Pentagon Press Secretary Patrick Ryder on Thursday noted that the United States intends to pick up cluster munitions for Ukraine, which allegedly will pose a minimal threat to civilians.
Earlier, the deputy official representative of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Farhan Haq, commenting on American media reports that the United States would provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, said that the head of the world organization supports the Convention on the Prohibition of Cluster Munitions and opposes the use of this type of weapons on the battlefield.
Bomb cassettes can contain hundreds of individual munitions. When detonating a cassette in the air, they are scattered over an area of tens of square meters. Some of them do not explode immediately and remain lying on the ground, posing a threat to civilians long after the end of the conflict. In 2008, the Convention on the Prohibition of Cluster Munitions was adopted, to which 111 countries joined, another 12 signed it, but have not yet ratified it.
According to the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch, the proportion of unexploded elements is usually much higher than stated, which leads to civilian casualties.