Russian news agencies quoted Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying on Tuesday that if the United States supplies Ukraine with cluster bombs, Moscow will be forced to use "similar"weapons.

 

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Edited by| Christian Megan

 

Politic section -  CJ journalist

Ukraine conflict news section      

 

Moscow – July,12,2023

 

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Last week, the United States announced that it would provide Ukraine with cluster munitions, which are explosive weapons that usually launch large numbers of small bombs covering a wide area. More than 100 countries, including Britain and Japan, prohibit the use of such munitions.

News agencies quoted Shoigu as saying that Russia possesses cluster munitions but has so far refrained from using them in its military campaign.

But the United States earlier accused Russia of using cluster munitions in Ukraine and said that their explosion failure rate reaches 40 percent, which makes the ground full of unexploded bombs. According to Washington, the failure rate of the cluster munitions it will send to Ukraine does not exceed 2.35 percent.

"If the United States supplies Ukraine with cluster munitions, the Russian Armed Forces will be forced to use similar weapons against the Ukrainian Armed Forces as a response,"Shoigu said.

"It should be noted that Russia has cluster munitions to use ... In any case... They are much more effective than American munitions,"he said. Shoigu noted that the Russian army is taking the necessary measures to protect its troops from such weapons.

According to the organization "Human Rights Watch", Moscow and Kiev have used cluster munitions during the 17-month conflict in Ukraine .

Neither the United States, nor Russia, nor Ukraine have signed the convention on Cluster Munitions.

US officials say they agreed to Kiev's request for cluster bombs after it became clear that it was running out of regular artillery ammunition, and that production would not meet its needs. Ukraine is now waging a counterattack against Russia.

Close allies of the United States, including Britain, Canada and Germany, have expressed their rejection of the use of cluster munitions.

Shoigu announced that his country's forces had advanced 1.5 km in a section of the front near Liman in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. He said that after repelling a Ukrainian attack, "Russian units launched a counterattack and advanced 1.5 km along a two-kilometer stretch of the front line" near Lyman, a city captured by the Ukrainian army in October 2022.

Last week, Ukrainian forces announced Russian attacks around Lyman, an important railway junction located about 50 km northeast of Kramatorsk, the main city under Ukrainian control in the east of the country.

Shoigu added that Ukrainian troops continued to " try to break through our defenses in various areas," saying there had been "waves of attacks" in the past two days. But the Russian minister stressed that" the enemy has not achieved its goals in any area " since the start of its counteroffensive in early June.

For his part, a Ukrainian military official said that Russia launched drone attacks on Kiev and the region located there for the second night in a row, while Ukrainian air defense systems began to repel the attacks.

The head of the Military Department of the Ukrainian capital, Serhiy Popko, said on Telegram: "the air raid warning system is activated and the air defense systems responded to the attacks as they approached Kiev.

The Kiev Military Administration on its channel on "Telegram" urged citizens to take shelter in shelters until the end of the raids.

Ukraine announced the establishment of a" coalition "of 11 countries to train their pilots on F-16 fighters, which Kiev demands to receive to support its counteroffensive.

 

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