Delivery time2023-07-21 08:10
U.S. officials confirmed… “Fire to break through the Southeastern Russian defense line”
Russia, used since the beginning of the war… International community alert due to concerns over civilian deaths
inside a cluster bomb
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(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Yoo Yu-ju = The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 20th (local time) that Ukraine has started using a controversial weapon, cluster munitions, because of possible war crimes.
According to multiple US military sources cited by the New York Times, Ukrainian forces recently fired US-made cluster munitions from the southeastern front in Ukraine, which borders the occupied territory of the Russian invasion force.
The Ukrainian army, which launched a counterattack early last month, is said to be using cluster munitions with indiscriminate killing power in order to advance through the defense lines of the occupied territories that the Russian army has been building for several months.
A cluster bomb is a weapon in which several small bombs are contained in one bomb. When the mother bomb explodes in the air, the baby bombs inside it pour out and attack several nearby targets simultaneously.
The U.S. delivered cluster munitions to Ukraine last week as a transitional measure, saying it would take time to produce the shells Ukraine needs.
Cluster bombs raise concerns about war crimes in the international community because of their indiscriminate nature, which harms not only soldiers and equipment participating in the war, but also civilians.
Because they target a wide area rather than precision strikes, civilian collateral damage is likely to occur, and there is a possibility that unexploded ordnance may remain on the ground and kill civilians who touch it decades later like landmines.
Because of this, 120 countries around the world ban the use of cluster bombs.
US allies supporting Ukraine militarily have also recently expressed their disapproval of US support for cluster munitions.
The U.S. government protested that the Ukrainian-supplied cluster bombs would not be used in civilian areas and that they were carefully selected and sent to those with low probability of misfire.
Russia’s use of cluster bombs shortly after it invaded Ukraine in February last year was caught, drawing criticism from the international community.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned over the weekend that if Ukraine uses US-made cluster munitions, Russia will respond with the same munitions.
hanju@yna.co.kr
[그래픽] ‘Steel Rain’ cluster bomb
(AFP = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Young-eun = 0eun@yna.co.kr Twitter @yonhap_graphics Facebook tuney.kr/LeYN1
Report via KakaoTalk okjebo
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2023/07/21 08:10 Send
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2023-07-20 23:10:04
