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Scott Olson/Getty Images
Residents take pictures of the remains of a missile that dropped cluster bombs in a residential housing complex on June 27, 2022 in Sloviansk, Ukraine.
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The United States recently announced it would be providing Ukraine with cluster munitions in its ongoing war against Russia. The move was swiftly condemned by many of the 100-plus nations that have signed a treaty banning the use of these weapons.
New Zealand among those countries, with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins – who’s currently in Europe – saying he would inform Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of New Zealand’s opposition to these weapons if he had the chance.
But why are cluster munitions such a big deal? Given Russia has been using them since the start of the war, isn’t Ukraine justified in using whatever tools it has to end the conflict?
Thomas Nash is a Wellington regional councillor, but for many years worked as a disarmament activist. He played a leading role in a Nobel Peace Prize-winning campaign to abolish nuclear weapons in 2017, and he joins Stuff’s daily podcast Newsable to explain why this is a line in the sand.
What are cluster munitions and how do they work?
“It’s basically a type of ammunition – it could be an artillery shell or a rocket or an air-dropped bomb – and it opens up in mid-air and spreads out a whole bunch of little bombs that are inside the canister, called submunitions or bomblets. They spread over quite a wide area, depending on the type of weapon – so they could cover like a couple of football fields with one bomb.”
What are the problems with these types of weapons?
“One is that they cover such wide areas they are indiscriminate, essentially, especially when used in or around civilian areas or urban areas.
“The second problem is that lots of them don’t go off when they hit the ground, so they just lie there and go off later when people maybe pick them up.
“They’re quite small – maybe the size of a can of Coke or smaller – quite a few of them have little ribbons on them, some of them are brightly-coloured. So, you know, kids (can) pick them up, play with them, and then they explode and people die or get terribly injured.
“The other thing is that if people know that they’re there, it (quite often) renders that land unusable until it’s been cleared.”
Why is the US providing Ukraine with these weapons a big deal?
“There is not a lot of transfer between countries of cluster munitions any more. It is considered a banned weapon – amongst other types of weapons like anti-personnel landmines, chemical weapons, biological weapons. Most countries in the world have decided this is unacceptable.”
Ukraine is the victim of this invasion. Russia has been using these weapons for many months; why shouldn’t Ukraine use cluster munitions?
“There are a range of things that you can and cannot do (in war) … where do we put those limits?
“I think it’s sad and misguided when people say, well, they should just do whatever they can to end the war. I think people who have experienced war, and who have seen firsthand the impacts of conflict on civilians – even long after the conflict has ended – would argue that, yes, there must be limits to war.
“You cannot just do whatever you want and leave a deadly legacy. That is unacceptable. It’s inhuman. And we don’t accept that.”
Newsable is Stuff’s daily news podcast, wrapping up what’s worth talking about in a short package every weekday morning. You can find new episodes and more detail on our stories here or in our newsletter. Make sure to like and follow us wherever you get your podcasts and across Instagram and TikTok.
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