German Foreign Minister Analina Baerbock has refused to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, a day after US officials said Washington planned to supply Kiev with weapons widely condemned for killing and maiming civilians.
Against the background of the opposition of human rights organizations to this step, Birbock stressed that Germany opposes this step as one of the 111 member states of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, stressing that the United States is not a party to the treaty, according to what was reported by Reuters, today (Friday).
In response to a question about what was announced by US officials, she told reporters at a climate conference in Vienna: I followed the media reports, for us as a party to the Oslo Accords, the agreement applies in this case, referring to the Convention on Cluster Munitions that was made available for signature in the Norwegian capital in 2008. It is prohibited Convention on the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster munitions.
The White House revealed that sending cluster munitions to Ukraine is actually being discussed, but nothing can be announced in this regard.
US President Joe Biden is scheduled to participate in a NATO summit a few days later in Lithuania, amid expectations that the Ukraine war file will dominate its discussions.
For its part, Human Rights Watch called on Russia and Ukraine to stop using cluster munitions, and called on the United States not to provide them, revealing that the two countries’ forces had already used them, killing Ukrainian civilians.
It is noteworthy that cluster munitions usually release a large number of small bombs that cause indiscriminate killing over a wide area, threatening the lives of civilians. Unexploded bomblets pose a danger for years after a conflict ends.
