Reuters: Ukraine asked the USA for cluster munitions to drop from drones

Ukraine asked the United States for cluster munitions in order to use their fragments for drone attacks.

This was reported by Reuters with reference to two American lawmakers — Jason Crowe and Adam Smith, who work in the House of Representatives Committee on Armed Forces.

Ukraine, in particular, is seeking an MK-20 cluster bomb to drop its individual parts from drones — this is in addition to the 155mm cluster artillery shells that Ukraine has already requested.

MK-20 is dropped from the plane. It opens mid-flight, releasing over 240 dart-like submunitions or bombs. The Ukrainian military believes that these submunitions "have better armor-piercing capability" than the munitions they drop from drones.

Ukraine wants cluster artillery shells to stop the "live wave" attacks that Russia has been orchestrating for months in an attempt to capture Bakhmut, the US lawmakers noted.

Reuters writes that cluster munitions may be too big a step for the Biden administration and some members of Congress. Opponents argue that when dropped, the bombs can maim and kill civilians and have a high failure rate, with unexploded ordnance remaining a hazard for years after the conflict ends.

Textron Systems ceased production of the MK-20 in 2016, but more than one million bombs are in the US military stockpiles.

In 2008, at an international conference in Dublin, an agreement was reached to ban the production, use and stockpiling of cluster munitions. 123 countries joined the agreement. The USA, Russia and Ukraine refused to join. In 2009, the USA passed a law that prohibits the export of cluster munitions with a failure rate of bombs higher than 1%. The US President Joe Biden can lift this ban.

• In January 2023, Foreign Policy wrote that Turkey supplies Ukraine with American-made cluster munitions during the Cold War.