The White House has approved the provision to Ukraine of cluster munitions. President Biden’s decision, as reported by The Washington Post, comes amid concerns about the pace of Kyiv’s counteroffensive and dwindling Western stocks of conventional artillery — and after internal debate about the weapons that are banned by most countries.
German and French officials told reporters their countries have declined to do the same, having made treaty commitments not to distribute cluster munitions.
Human rights groups criticized the U.S. move. “Cluster munitions are an indiscriminate weapon that presents a grave threat to civilian lives, even long after a conflict has ended,” Daniel Balson, the advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International USA, a rights group, said in a statement. Mary Wareham, advocacy director of the arms division of Human Rights Watch, described the U.S. decision as “dismaying,” arguing that removing the 1 percent failure measure would mean “an even greater threat to civilians, including de-miners.”
Ukraine wants and expects an invitation to join NATO. Allies are not sure: Top Ukrainian officials are hoping that next week’s NATO summit in Lithuania will bring a “clear signal” that Ukraine will eventually join the alliance, anchoring the country in the West’s security infrastructure and sending an unequivocal message to Moscow, David L. Stern, Emily Rauhala and Isabelle Khurshudyan report.
Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, said the summit “must end” with Zelensky and Stoltenberg proclaiming an invitation for Kyiv to join the bloc. But just days before leaders arrive in the Lithuanian capital, it’s far from clear this will happen, and NATO allies are still negotiating what exactly to offer Ukraine.
Kelsey Ables, Victoria Bisset, Kareem Fahim, Adam Taylor, Eve Sampson
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