If U.S.-supplied cluster munitions are used against Russian troops in Ukraine, Russia could respond with the same munitions, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Saturday (local time).
“Russia has a sufficient stockpile of cluster munitions, and if such munitions are used against Russian forces, Russia has the right to use them,” Putin said in an interview with local broadcaster Rossiya-1, according to the Reuters-Sputnik news agency.
“So far we have not used cluster munitions, and we did not use them during the period when we had a shortage of ammunition,” he said, adding that “if this munition is used against us, we reserve the right to do the same.”
The U.S. announced its decision to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine on July 7, and delivered the shipment on July 13, in light of the Ukrainian military's ammunition shortage, and the U.S. 먹튀검증 position is to provide cluster munitions only as a transitional measure until it can produce enough shells for its 155mm howitzers.
Cluster bombs, which contain multiple smaller bombs inside a single bomb, are sometimes referred to as “steel rain” because the parent bomb detonates in the air and the suicide bombs inside rains down, hitting multiple targets simultaneously.
However, they are banned by 120 countries around the world due to the high number of unexploded ordnance that can cause civilian casualties, and there is an ongoing debate in the United States about supporting cluster munitions.
Russia has been criticized by the international community for reportedly using cluster munitions in the early days of the war in Ukraine.
