Ukraine news: What impact could cluster munitions have on the war?

uh now our military analyst Sean Bell is with his highly significant day isn't it 500 Days since the war started and now these cluster bombs are being sent in something that is highly controversial why is that well it's worth pointing out Nick that these cluster Munitions whilst they're controversial today they were a central part of most western Nations inventory for many decades during the Cold War um they're an area weapon we before we had Precision weapons we still needed to strike targets like tanks which are mobile very difficult to do with a Precision strike whereas cluster missions like this I used to fly some of these when I was operating in Germany they're incredibly effective against tanks and the like and the way they operate clearly is they are a single munition delivered from an aircraft or actually from um from the ground once the weapon gets near the ground it depends on how high you need it to operate it will trigger the outer skins to come off their weapon as we're about to see here and then you can see that the cluster Munitions then it releases a whole load of Munitions which are then forward in an area often the size of a football pitch onto the ground now when they hit the target and if the target's anywhere in that football pitch that will be hit the trouble is the vast majority of those bomblets do not hit the target they're expected to go off on the ground but certainly back in the day they had done rates of up to 10 percent and those Munitions unexploded Munitions would then lie around the battlefield for years decades to come and there are tens of thousands of Civilian casualties that result in the decades since they were used there has been a statistic that says over 98 cents of the casualties caused by these Munitions are actually to civilians in the decades afterwards as a result over 120 Nations have banned their use anymore no longer procure them no longer use them but of course those Nations don't include Russia Ukraine or America um interesting timing here isn't it we've got the NATO Summit uh coming up and President Biden gave the green lights to sending in these cluster musician Munitions just yesterday the timing is really important isn't it because with the NATO billionaire Summit next week I don't suppose that they would really have wanted to announce this just before it almost certainly that reflects the timely imperative of getting these weapons in uh to Ukraine swiftly the US have been very careful to brief this that they've said that the um president zlinski desperate needs more weapons that the counter offenses is is strategically crucial over a month in it's still not actually delivering the results that they might have hoped for and one of those reasons is the trenches trench systems there and the minefields trench systems shown here are incredibly difficult for ukrainians to overcome you could try and use Precision weapons to take them out but you need so many they're just not available whereas cluster Munitions could be extremely effective against these sorts of targets they're certainly available and they're available in significant numbers and it's also worth pointing out despite the nuanced argument around this President zlinski is involved in a war of national survival and therefore that's undoubtedly influencing the decision of the US and Ukraine I don't know less allegations a bound to surface of hypocrisy against the US and potentially president zelenski that is absolutely right and it's slightly difficult for the US here because they've been very critical in a part of the war of Russia using um these these weapons um and yet the Americans are not signatories to the agreement they've got huge stockpiles back in the U.S and actually Ukraine has also used these weapons earlier in the war as well what the U.S has said though are two main things one of which is Russia has used them on Ukraine soil so it's Ukraine that has to deal with a Fallout from all this not Russia and secondly Russia's been targeting civilian casualties this bit of video footage is from kharkiv last year very early in the war when Russia was targeting the civilian population with them and also therefore unexploded bombs will lie in the middle of the city which would be really dangerous Ukraine's been clear we're not using these against our own people we're not using them in the cities they'll be in open areas they'll be targeting the trenches and almost certainly the minefields and if they are effective then of course that will justify uh the decision that the US and Ukraine are making but whatever this decision is incred incredibly provocative very controversial and whatever happens president silinski alone will hold responsibility for the unexploded audience and the impact that will have for the next generation of his Ukrainian colleagues yeah certainly leave a legacy weren't they sure and thank you for now

Channel: Sky News

Views: 528,775

Keywords: cluster bombs, ukraine, us sends cluster bombs to ukraine, ukraine russia, russia ukraine war, war in ukraine, sky news, sky news live, former chief of general staff for the British Army, General Lord Dannatt, General Lord Dannatt Sky News, Ukraine news, Ukraine Russia news, Ukraine war news, What are cluster bombs?, NATO, 500 days of Ukraine war, sean bell, cluster munitions explainers

Id: m7TXEn2HTRg

Length: 4min 20sec (260 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 08 2023