U.S. officials say the Biden administration will send Ukraine an undisclosed number of medium-range cluster bombs and an array of rockets, artillery and armored vehicles in a military aid package totaling about $375 million.

The U.S. will send Ukraine an undisclosed number of medium-range cluster bombs and an array of rockets, artillery and armored vehicles in a military aid package totaling about $375 million, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Officials expect an announcement on Wednesday, as global leaders meet at the U.N. General Assembly, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy uses his appearance there to shore up support and persuade the U.S. to allow his troops to use long-range weapon s to strike deeper into Russia. The following day, Zelenskyy meets with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington.

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 month ago

      https://www.csis.org/analysis/cluster-munitions-what-are-they-and-why-united-states-sending-them-ukraine

      Dud rates vary from 2 percent to 40 percent, with U.S. submunitions on the lower end and Russian submunitions on the higher end. Duds act like landmines and can injure civilians

      While everything to do with war is a varying amount of horrifying,

      • Ukrainians are desperate enough to choose to use them in their own country
      • they’re being given far more reliable munitions than what they’re already being attacked with
    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3·
      1 month ago

      yeah, and so will russian landmines? Like, vastly more amounts of them will be vastly more problematic.

      Cluster bombs are built to explode, in US cluster bombs, up to about 1% of them fail to detonate iirc. It’s higher for russian bombs, upwards of 5% i think. Even if we’re generous to cluster bombs, it’s still just a tiny, tiny fraction of the probably hundreds of thousands of russian landmines that have been planted.