2023-07-07 11:32:18
US officials revealed that Washington will announce a new aid package to Ukraine that includes cluster munitions.
This comes in anticipation of the outcome of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit today to Turkey, within the framework of mobilizing positions to support his country’s accession to NATO and pushing member states to take concrete steps at the NATO summit next week.
What are cluster munitions, and which countries possess them?
By definition, cluster munitions are weapons that consist of a container that opens in the air and disperses large numbers of bomblets or explosive submunitions. Cluster munitions are dropped from the air, sea, or land, and most of the submunitions they launch are designed to explode on impact, but they have the advantage of free fall, meaning that they are not directed at a specific target. According to official international data, 34 countries have produced more than 200 types of cluster munitions. These munitions are stockpiled by 87 countries, including 16 countries that have already used them during armed conflicts. The widespread use of these weapons has caused the spread of thousands, possibly millions of unexploded submunitions, in many countries and regions, posing a grave danger to civilians. Non-explosion rates for used munitions range from 10 percent to 40 percent. Because of their danger, the Dublin Conference adopted, in May 2008, the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The convention sets strict rules to ensure that cluster munitions are not used and disposed of.
In this context, the military and strategic expert, Samir Ragheb, said in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”:
The failure of the Ukrainian counterattack, its collision with Russia’s fortified defenses, and the depletion of stocks of some types of munitions are all factors that make Ukraine more in need of these cluster bombs. Ukraine obtaining these bombs is considered an important factor in the battles in combination with other factors, of course, such as morale. Russia used it in its military operation, and it is one of the worst and most dangerous types of ammunition.
Rally in support of NATO
Ukraine is trying to win NATO’s support in the field of arms supplies and agree to join the alliance, and this prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to stress that Ukraine needs “sincere relations” with NATO.
The Ukrainian president called on NATO countries to take concrete steps during their summit next week to include his country in the alliance.
Ukraine’s desire to obtain membership collides with the division of opinion of member states regarding the speed of taking the step. While some parties are pushing for accelerating Ukraine’s accession, other countries are afraid of taking such a step and see that it is dragging the alliance into a direct war with Russia, especially in light of the The latter completely rejected such a step.
This is in addition to the absence of one of the most important conditions for joining the alliance, in the Ukrainian case, which is that the candidate country is not in a state of war or that some of its lands fall under the control of another party.
In this context, Professor of International Relations at the National University, Dr. Maxim Yali, said in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”:
No one expects that there will be drastic changes after Zelensky’s visit to Turkey. The upcoming NATO summit is one of the reasons for Zelensky’s visit to Turkey. I am sure that the delivery of weapons to Ukraine will be discussed during Zelensky’s visit to Turkey, and the latter will not refuse Ukraine’s accession to the alliance. From these shuttle visits, Zelensky is trying to achieve additional gains in the field of arms supplies and joining NATO.
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