Skip to main content

May Use Similar Weapons If US Supplies Cluster Bombs To Ukraine: Russia

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that Moscow would be forced to use "similar" weapons if the United States supplied cluster bombs to Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported.

The US announced last week it would supply Ukraine with cluster munitions - explosive weapons that typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets over a wide area. They are banned by over 100 countries, including Britain and Japan.

Shoigu was quoted as saying that Russia was in possession of cluster munitions but had so far refrained from using them in its military campaign.

However the US has previously accused Russia of using cluster munitions in Ukraine and said they have had a failure rate of up to 40%, leaving the ground littered with unexploded bomblets. Washington says the cluster munitions it is sending to Ukraine have a failure rate of less than 2.35%.

"In the event that the United States supplies cluster munitions to Ukraine, the Russian armed forces will be forced to use similar weapons against the armed forces of Ukraine as a response," Shoigu said on Tuesday.

"It should be noted that Russia has cluster munitions in service... for all occasions... They are much more effective than American ones...," he said.

Shoigu added that the Russian army was taking measures to protect its troops from such weapons.

Human Rights Watch says both Moscow and Kyiv have used cluster munitions during the nearly 17-month conflict in Ukraine, which Russia calls a "special military operation".

The US Russia and Ukraine have not signed up to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

US officials say they granted Kyiv's request for cluster bombs after it became apparent that Ukraine - now waging a counteroffensive against Russia - was running out of regular artillery ammunition and production would not meet its needs.

Close US allies including Britain, Canada and Germany have expressed their opposition to the use of cluster munitions.

In other comments, Shoigu said Russia was "significantly reducing" the potential of Ukraine's counteroffensive and that Russian forces had gained ground during their own counterattack in the direction of Lyman in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield claims.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/7pMCNt8
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

US Power Firm Admits It May Have Sparked Texas' Largest Wildfire Ever

A US power company admitted Thursday that its equipment may have sparked the largest wildfire in Texas' history. Xcel -- the parent of Southwest Public Service Company, which provides electricity to part of the state -- said it was working with officials investigating the cause of the blaze that charred more than a million acres (over 400,000 hectares). "Based on currently available information, Xcel Energy acknowledges that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire," the company said. Hundreds of homes are thought to have been destroyed in the fire, which is known to have killed at least two people and over 3,000 farm animals. Xcel, which is facing at least one lawsuit, denied its equipment was improperly maintained. "However, we encourage people who had property destroyed by, or livestock lost in, the Smokehouse Creek fire to submit a claim to Xcel Energy through our claims process," the statement said. The W
Post a Comment
Read more

It's Official, Kamala Harris Is Democratic Candidate For US Election

US Vice President Kamala Harris effectively secured the Democratic party's presidential nomination Friday, confirming her remarkable rise to party standard bearer in November's showdown against Republican Donald Trump. Kamala Harris was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates. She will be officially crowned at a Chicago convention later this month. "I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States," Kamala Harris, 59, said on a phone-in to a party celebration after securing enough votes by the second day of the marathon vote. In the two weeks since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, Kamala Harris has gained full control of the party. No other Democrats stepped forward to challenge her elevation to the top of the ticket, making her confirmation as the first Black and South Asian woman ever to secure a major party's nomination a formality. The a
Post a Comment
Read more

All You Need To Know About Donald Trump's 1st Criminal Trial

Donald Trump goes on trial Monday for allegedly covering up hush money payments to hide affairs ahead of the 2016 presidential election which propelled him into the White House. He will become the first former US president to go on criminal trial when jury selection begins next week. Here are the key questions ahead of the landmark trial: What is Trump accused of? As Trump closed in on victory in the 2016 presidential election, adult film star Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged 2006 sexual tryst with Trump. The payments, made by Trump's lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, were revealed by The Wall Street Journal in January 2018. Prosecutors have seized on the concealment of the payments as "legal fees" in the Trump Organization's accounts when Cohen was reimbursed as the heart of their case. Prosecutors say Trump "concealed the reason for these payments... which clearly were paid in order to influence voters," former prosec
Post a Comment
Read more