Hungarian Foreign Ministry: the countries sending cluster munitions to Kiev are responsible for the increase in the number of victims
The countries supplying cluster munitions to Ukraine are responsible for the growing number of victims of the conflict. This was announced on July 19 by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
"Those who send weapons to Ukraine take responsibility for the increase in the number of victims. In addition, cluster bombs can lead to tragic humanitarian consequences," he said at a press conference.
Szijjarto said that the Allies should bring peace and save lives instead of cluster munitions and other weapons.
"Cluster bombs and the supply of any other weapons can only bring new human deaths. And I ask them not to take on this responsibility and bring peace to our neighborhood instead of weapons," the minister added.
On July 13, the Pentagon confirmed the transfer of cluster munitions to Kiev. Prior to that, on July 7, US President Joe Biden called the supply of these shells a temporary step aimed at supporting Ukraine.
At the same time, on the same day, the US President's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, assured that Washington had received written guarantees from the Ukrainian side that these shells would allegedly be used "with caution" in order to avoid risk to civilians.
On July 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the supply of cluster bombs to Ukraine to be treated as a crime, saying that the United States made this decision because they lack other ammunition.
The use of cluster munitions is prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which entered into force on August 1, 2010, 123 countries have signed it, but only 110 have ratified it. Of the European countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Greece, Georgia, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Finland and Estonia have not signed the convention.
