(Maj Gen Harvijay Singh, SM)
Cluster Bombs: they come in different hues but are equally devastating.
A new ‘Game Changer’; the Cluster Bomb enters the Ukraine war to spearhead the latest Ukrainian offensive. It is
being reported that the Ukrainian military’s 47th Mechanised Brigade has breached Russian lines to reach the
outskirts of Robotyne, a village 20 KMs to the north-east of Tokmak in the Zaporizhzhia region. Ukraine would be
keeping its fingers crossed that this newest ‘Game Changer’ will be ……….. ‘the Game Changer’.
Cluster Bombs; the Americans call their Artillery Cluster Ammunition as DPICMs (Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition), a weapon President Joe Biden recently decided to supply to Ukraine.
The cluster munitions, contain a multitude of explosive submunitions which can be launched from ground, air, or sea to coat a large area with several hundred explosives. The area can be several 1000s Sq Metres and anyone within the cluster munitions strike zone – military or civilian – are likely to be killed by the submunition or seriously injured.
One of the first notable civilian casualty to the American DPICM has been a Russian war reporter Rostislav Zhuravlev, who was killed, and three other Russian journalists wounded in a Ukrainian artillery attack near the frontline in Zaporizhzhia region.
The weapon is so dangerous that as of April 2023, at least 123 countries signed on to UN’s 2008 Convention on
Cluster Munitions—a treaty that bans the use of cluster munitions. The irony however is Russia, Ukraine, nor the United States is a signatory. (Even India, China and Pakistan are not)
Notably most submunitions are not precision guided, their accuracy can be affected by weather and other environmental factors. They may therefore hit areas outside the military objective targeted. Also, according to
reports, up to 40 % of cluster munitions fail to detonate upon impact, leading to sporadic explosions and long-lasting disruptions that can span decades. Unexploded submunitions often explode when handled or disturbed.
There isn’t a weapon used in warfare that doesn’t carry the risks of killing people. That’s what these weapons are all about. Leon Panetta, a former Defence Secretary and CIA director.
It is easy for the Americans to be laisse faire on the issue; they would cook up an escape if things went out of hand blaming the Ukrainians. Biden has already called the move a “difficult decision”, “helped along by a promise by the Ukrainians to use the weapons carefully”. The measure was planned as stopgap according to Biden, one that would presumably allow Ukraine to keep fighting while the US and its allies worked on getting more 155 mm artillery shells for them; strange excuses really!
It is surprising, however that the Ukrainians are exploding these ‘gifts’ from USA to contaminate their own occupied territory underscoring the bizarre and persisting effects of cluster munition to which their citizens will return. They are excited enough to go to the extent of telling an anti-cluster bomb German MP to “go to hell”. UK and Spain have already voiced their objection to the cluster bombs transfer.
As far as progress of the fresh offensive is concerned, Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has “reiterated that the Ukrainian counteroffensive will be slow and difficult but will prevent Russian forces from retaking the battlefield initiative”. A mature appreciation of a tactical position at this stage