Jul 11: The Use of DPICMs- cluster bombs

Commentary and Minister of Defence Reznikov's statements on the 5 Principles

Oleksii Reznikov, The use of cluster bombs

Ukraine‘s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has released a statement in regards to receiving DPICMs (cluster munitions), and why he has welcomed this decision.

Since the US announced that it would provide the DPICMs to Ukraine, a number of human rights organisations and leaders of various countries have expressed their concern, citing the Convention of Cluster Munitions barring their use. Some have asked President Biden to reverse his decision. They say that they pose a danger to civilian populations because of their failure rate, and for years afterwards if the bomblets are triggered by people stepping on them or handling them when they return to homes after the war, as in the case of Afghanistan and other war-torn threatres. The failure rate or ‘dud rate’ (unexploded bomblets) for US cluster munitions is roughly 2.3%, while the Russian failure rate is significantly higher at roughly 30% to 40%. These rates depend on the kind of DPICMs are used.

China, Pakistan, Iran, and Brazil are not signatories to the convention. Ukraine, the U.S. and other NATO members such as Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Finland and Romania have not signed the convention either because “these munitions work against Russian-style armies,” said John Foreman, the most recent UK defence attaché to Moscow. Weapons specialists point out that Kyiv is fighting the very Russian formations that DPICMs were produced to fight against.

Ukraine has used them on the line of contact before: “Turkey has reportedly already supplied Ukraine with cluster munitions, and these have been used without any reported incidents of friendly fire,” reports the Financial Times, and Moscow has been deploying its own cluster bombs since 2014, and during the full-scale war on Ukraine.

The international press, organic activist groups, and Kremlin-aligned propaganda tools are focusing on them now because it is the US supplying these weapons. These voices don’t seem to make anything of the 10 million hectares of Ukrainian land already contaminated by Russian mines and unexploded shells.

Kier Giles at Chatham House: 'The people who turn this into an issue of moral equivalence are part of the problem, as they are equating the behaviours of Russia & Ukraine, when, in fact, they are actually poles apart.'

The American authorities have decided to provide them at this time because the Ukrainian forces have burned through stockpiles of other kinds of munitions, and the armaments manufacturers need time to replace those stockpiles. “Ukraine has said shortages have limited its troops to firing 100,000 rounds a month, a quarter of what the Russians are using and almost a sixth of the number of shells Kyiv has said its troops could fire” reports the Financial Times.

“We want to make sure that the Ukrainians have sufficient artillery to keep them in the fight,” Colin Kahl, US under-secretary of defence for policy, said last week. “This is to make sure that the Ukrainians . . . have what they need, but frankly, also that the Russians know that the Ukrainians are going to stay in the game.”

The DPICMs will not be a ‘game-changer’ for the Ukrainian counteroffensive, but they are effective, and they need them to move forward to liberate occupied territory. "They provide suppressive fire that stops the enemy using their own weapons, which could help Ukrainian sappers as they clear the dense minefields protecting Russian defensive lines”, military analysts said. “Ukraine’s forces need to create gaps in the Russian defences so they can push through with armoured formations,” said Ben Hodges, a former commander of US armed forces in Europe.

At the end of the war, de-mining operations will be necessary so the civilian population can return to their homes (see principle no. 4 below). And these efforts are currently underway. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence are de-mining areas that have been liberated by their armed forces.

In the end, most dissenting expert views have lost sight of two essential facts: Ukrainian troops would not fire on their own population, and time is of the essence. The Ukrainian armed forces have been using DPICMs against Russian forces in open fields where there are concentrations of infantry, fortified points on the line of contact, and areas cleared of the civilian population. The Ukrainian forces’ first priority is to liberate their compatriots, not kill them. Secondly, the longer the war lasts, the more Ukrainian citizens will die. How many lives could have been saved if Ukraine’s allies had supplied it with more modern and effective defence weapons?

Russian-aligned propaganda channels on Telegram were in panic mode on Friday night after the announcement because Russian milblogers realise what a lethal munition it is on the line of contact and how many more soldiers they will lose. Turkey’s announcement that it has given the greenlight to Sweden’s accession to NATO has triggered them again, but they continue to deride the US and Ukraine about the cluster munitions.

Kremlin-aligned actors targeting Western audiences focus on one central narrative: we cannot antagonise Putin or the Russian leadership for fear of escalating the war. Putin will nuke us if we do, and we all die—that’s where we’re heading—perfectly parroting Dmitry Medvedev’s latest screed. Some have also picked Maria Zakharova’s statement that president Biden doesn’t care about killing Ukrainian or Russian children, intimating not only that he is a monster but also personally involved in hiding his son’s activities.

While not scientific, I spent time listening to a radio phone-in show based in London where callers continuously repeated the ‘escalation’ narrative and used it as a justification for not giving Ukraine cluster bombs or other armaments for that matter. Some went as far as to suggest that Ukraine should negotiate a peace deal now instead of continuing to defend itself since the armed forces were losing the counteroffensive or they were progressing far too slowly.

None of the callers were in Ukraine: they made these statements from the comfort of their kitchens and living rooms, safely tucked away in London, based on their perception that the war would stop if Ukraine didn’t receive any more weapons. They made them without knowing what it means to lose a loved one to Russian missiles or attacks, or to surrender to the Russians forces. If Ukrainians were to lay down their arms now, it would be the end of their state and the annihilation of their people. All you need is see is the fate of Mariupol and other areas under Russian occupation to understand that that would be the future of Ukraine.

Not one of the callers I listened to mentioned making an appeal to the Russian leadership to cease all missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, the murder of civilians, the theft of Ukrainian resources, the bombing of their infrastructure, or simply call for the retreat of all Russian forces. The ‘Stop the War’ protests were plentiful in Europe and in Washington D.C. in the spring 2022, but none of the organisers have held a demonstration in front of the Russian embassies in cities across the European Union or the United States where they are located.

In my view, Ukraine must be given what it needs to defend itself. Waving around a peace flag cannot stop bombs and missiles or a marching army. Ukraine has agreed to comply with the five principles in order to receive armaments from its allies. I believe they will respect the five principles, which you can read below.

Allied support has delivered enough armaments and munitions to Ukraine for it to survive, but not win. At every step of the way, there’s been a lot of humming and hawing, hesitation and slow-walking. We didn’t ramp up our armaments production in time, and we didn’t send advanced weapons systems, such as fighter jets, that are sorely needed to protect the Ukrainian skies and to execute combined arms operations. Had we done our part faster and earlier, DPICMs would not be going to Ukraine today and we wouldn’t be having this absurd debate between those who truly support the defence of Ukraine and the malign voices that seek its destruction and Russia’s victory wouldn’t.

Ministry of Defence Statement

We welcome the decision of the US to provide Ukraine with the new liberation weapons that will significantly help us to de-occupy our territories while saving the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers.

Under Article 51 of the UN Charter Ukraine has a universal internationally recognised right to self-defence and thus we have been officially requesting these types of munitions for a long time. I would like to stress that in exercising our inalienable right to self-defence we will continue to strictly comply with all the international humanitarian conventions signed and ratified by Ukraine.

It is important to note that the russian federation has been indiscriminately using cluster munitions from day 1 of the unprovoked large-scale aggression. In February-March 2022 Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city with over a million population, was relentlessly bombarded by russians cluster munitions.

Our position is simple - we need to liberate our temporarily occupied territories and save the lives of our people. For this we need to inflict losses on the enemy - war criminals, rapists and looters - who are occupying our territories. The more losses we inflict on them the more lives of Ukrainian people we will be able to save.

It is in our interest to save the lives of our soldiers. This is why we will continue to do this using all lethal weapons available to us.

Regarding the cluster munitions, we have 5 key principles which we will abide by and which we have clearly communicated to all our partners, including the US. I have personally informed our US partners about these five principles in writing a long time ago.

1. Ukraine will use these munitions only for the de-occupation of our internationally recognised territories. These munitions will not be used on the officially recognized territory of russia.

2. We will not be using cluster munitions in urban areas (cities) to avoid the risks for the civilian populations - these are our people, they are Ukrainians we have a duty to protect. Cluster munitions will be used only in the fields where there is a concentration of russian military. They will be used to break through the enemy defence lines with minimum risk for the lives of our soldiers. Saving the lives of our troops, even during extremely difficult offensive operations, remains our top priority.

3. Ukraine will keep a strict record of the use of these weapons and the local zones where they will be used.

4. Based on these records, after the de-occupation of our territories and our victory these territories will be prioritised for the purposes of de-mining. This will enable us to eradicate the risk from the unexploded elements of cluster munitions. The Minister of Defence of Ukraine is by law acting as the Head of the national de-mining agency. In this capacity I will ensure the implementation of the relevant legal framework for the de-mining process after our victory.

5. We will report to our partners about the use of these munitions, and about their efficiency to ensure the appropriate standard of transparent reporting and control.