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National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan: “we will not leave Ukraine defenseless” [1]

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Date: 2023-07-07

The next draw down package details will be available later by the Pentagon on the 500th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan gave a presser today at the White House stating that “we will not leave Ukraine defenseless” in the case of shipping cluster munitions.

He stated that Russia has been using cluster munitions since the start of the invasion and that those munitions have a 30-40% ‘dud rates’. Dud rate refers to the possibility of failure of the submunitions released by a single bomb or shell. Unexploded ordnance in the millions exist around the world from prior conflicts, e.g. Laos.

He said that US provided munitions have 2.5% dud rates which is higher than the 1% threshold stated before the Trump administration indefinitely delayed implementation of a ban on producing and using unreliable types of cluster munitions that was due to take effect on January 1, 2019.

Sullivan promised to support demining efforts regardless. The US recognized the threat of unexploded ordnance, but the artillery effort must be supported in the defense of Ukraine’s citizens. Citizens have been specifically targeted by the Russians and tens of millions of such rounds have already been expended. There is an updated. March 2022 Congressional Report on the status of such munitions.

In late February 2022, nongovernmental organizations reported that Russia had employed cluster munitions in Ukraine. Human Rights Watch reported that on February 24, 2022, “a Russian ballistic missile carrying a cluster munition struck just outside a hospital in Vuhledar, a town in the Ukrainian government-controlled Donetska region.”8 The report further alleged that “the attack killed four civilians and injured another 10, six of them healthcare workers, and damaged the hospital, an ambulance, and civilian vehicles.”9 Based on an examination of the alleged weapon’s remnants, Human Rights Watch assessed that the weapon was “a 9M79-series Tochka ballistic missile with a 9N123 cluster munition warhead.”10Amnesty International reported that on February 25, 2022, “a 220mm Uragan rocket dropped cluster munitions on the Sonechko nursery and kindergarten in the town of Okhtyrka in Sumy Oblast, where local people were seeking safety from the fighting.” The attack allegedly killed three people, including a child.11Commenting on videos depicting alleged Russian cluster munition use, DOD officials stated during a March 1, 2022 press conference that “we’ve seen the same video that you have but we have not assessed that it is definitive with respect to the use of cluster munitions. So we are not in a position to confirm the use of cluster munitions at this time.”12 In a similar manner, a DOD official stated during March 3, 2022, press conference that DOD was still unable to confirm Russia’s use of cluster munitions.13On March 4, 2022, Human Rights Watch reported that Russian forces fired cluster munitions into at least three residential areas in Kharkiv on February 28, 2022, killing at least three civilians.14Furthermore, a variety of sources allege that Russian use of cluster munitions may constitute a On March 4, 2022, Human Rights Watch reported that Russian forces fired cluster munitions into at least three residential areas in Kharkiv on February 28, 2022, killing at least three civilians.14Furthermore, a variety of sources allege that Russian use of cluster munitions may constitute a “war crime.”15 Reportedly, the International Criminal Court will launch an investigation into allegations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine that could also examine allegations of cluster munitions use.16 sgp.fas.org/...

The US is not a signatory in the case of cluster munitions and mines.

(2017) The US is not one of the 102 states parties to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits these weapons and requires clearance of their explosive remnants as well as assistance to victims. But the decision reverses the US commitment not to use cluster munitions that fail more than 1 percent of the time, leaving deadly unexploded munitions that can kill for years. “After spending hundreds of millions of dollars researching alternatives to cluster munitions, the US has decided it can’t produce ‘safe’ cluster munitions so it will keep using ‘unsafe’ ones,” said Mary Wareham, arms division advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, which chairs the Cluster Munition Coalition. “The Trump administration is embracing repugnant weapons rejected by the international community, a move that could embolden others to use cluster munitions that have caused so much human suffering.” [...] A Department of Defense policy memo signed on November 30, 2017, by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan indefinitely delays implementation of a ban on using unreliable types of cluster munitions that was due to take effect on January 1, 2019. [...] The US maintains that cluster munitions have military utility, but, with the exception of a single strike in Yemen in 2009, it has not used them since 2003 in Iraq. www.hrw.org/...

For example, M483A1 DPICM artillery-delivered cluster bombs have a reported dud rate of 14%, but it’s not solely a quality assurance issue as indicated by Human Rights Watch.

Several types of US-made cluster munitions have a history of producing high numbers of submunitions that fail to detonate upon impact. Dud rates of 14-23 percent have been documented in testing for M77, M42, and M46 Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) submunitions contained in rockets and artillery projectiles. Two types of air-dropped cluster munitions – Rockeye (CBU99/CBU-100) bombs and Combined Effects Munitions (CBU-87) – produced high numbers of unexploded submunitions when the US used them in combat operations in Iraq, Kuwait, former Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan. www.hrw.org/...

www.youtube.com/…

x The German government has come out against sending cluster munitions to Ukraine, on the day US plans to announce their delivery to Ukraine.



Germany is one of more than 120 signatories to a global treaty banning the use and delivery of cluster munitions. https://t.co/ciXpKEeEef — Alex Ward (@alexbward) July 7, 2023

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/7/2179780/-National-Security-Advisor-Jake-Sullivan-we-will-not-leave-Ukraine-defenseless

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