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There is no legal reason the US can’t supply cluster bombs to Ukraine – but that doesn’t justify Biden's decision to do so (theconversation.com)

submitted 1 year ago by alyaza to c/politics

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[–] HanlonsButterknife 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

From your linked pdf:

Ukraine is the only country in the world where cluster munitions are being used as of August 2022.

• Russia has used cluster munitions extensively since invading Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

• Ukrainian forces appear to have used them at least three times during the conflict.

• There were no reports of new cluster munition use in any other country during the reporting period (from August 2021 to July 2022).

149 cluster munitions casualties recorded in 2021; a 59% decrease from 2020 total (360).

• Civilians accounted for 97% of all casualties.

• Children accounted for 66% of all casualties where the age was known.

• 2021 was the first year in a decade that there were no new casualties resulting from cluster munition attacks.

• Cluster munition remnant casualties recorded in: Azerbaijan | Iraq | Lao PDR | Lebanon | Mauritania | Nagorno-Karabakh Sudan | Syria | Tajikistan | Western Sahara |Yemen

• Preliminary data indicates at least 689 civilian casualties during cluster munition attacks in Ukraine during the first half of 2022.

So to summarize:

Nearly every cluster bomb being used worldwide is being used by Russians in Ukraine
Nearly every cluster bomb casualty is a civilian

Considering that Russia has an extremely well-documented history of specifically targeting civilians, regardless of munitions type, this seems like more of a Russia problem than a cluster bomb problem (at least to the point that it renders these specific statistics moot in a discussion about the general risks of cluster munitions, when used by militaries that are not as barbarous and murderous as the Russian military)