Pentagon confirms handover of cluster munitions to Ukraine

The Pentagon on Thursday confirmed it had handed cluster munitions to Ukraine, following an announcement by President Joe Biden a few days ago. 

The use of this type of weapon is prohibited by an international convention supported by more than a hundred countries, but the US, Ukraine and Russia had not joined the document.

Kyiv on Thursday confirmed they had already received cluster munitions from the US.

At a briefing in the Pentagon on July 13, General Douglas Sims, the head of the operations division of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked by an Associated Press whether he would confirm the transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine. General Sims replied cluster munitions were in Ukraine.

To the question of Bloomberg whether these weapons transferred to Ukraine were American or from allies, the general answered that both. 

As for the use of cluster munitions in such a way as not to cause casualties among the civilian population and to minimize losses in the Ukrainian army, Sims claimed he did not think that the Ukrainians were interested in using cluster munitions near the civilian population, unlike Russia. He noted Ukraine intended to use these weapons based on the tactical situation and against Russian forces, not the civilian population.