Ukraine Began Receiving Banned Cold War-Era Cluster Munitions From Turkey - Media

From late 2022, Turkey began supplying Ukraine with artillery ammunition with a cluster warhead. They were produced during the Cold War, and have been banned since 2010.

Foreign Policy writes about this with reference to European and American officials familiar with the matter.

Deliveries of the so-called dual purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) began last November. According to the interlocutors of the agency, Ukraine has long been asking the United States to provide it with such weapons.

Each such munition scatters about 88 smaller munitions to destroy manpower and armored vehicles on the battlefield. It is noted that some of such ammunition may not explode, remaining in the ground for many years.

It was for this reason that the USA refused to transfer DPICM to Ukraine. American law prohibits the export of this type of ammunition due to its high probability of detonation.

"After the U.S. denied access to cluster munitions, Turkey turned out to be the only place where Ukraine could get them... It just shows that even when Turkey gets along with Russia in some ways, it has become a really important supporter of Ukraine in military plan," said one of the interlocutors of the agency.

It is not known with certainty how much DPICM Turkey transferred to Ukraine. The publication notes that in the past two large Turkish enterprises produced cluster ammunition for barrel and rocket artillery.

Also in the past, the USA and Chile transferred their cluster munitions to Turkey.

Foreign Policy sent a request for this information to the Turkish Embassy in Washington and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, but did not receive a response.

Cluster munitions are a type of munitions that release smaller munitions (sub-munitions) during rupture. They are used to destroy personnel or vehicles.

Cluster munition sub-munitions may not always explode and remain on the ground for a long time.

This type of munition poses a high risk to the civilian population as it can continue to kill or injure long after hostilities.

Cluster munitions are banned by an international convention that was adopted in 2008. As of this moment, 110 countries of the world are participants of the convention and another 123 states of the world are supporters of the goal of the convention.

It should be noted that Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the USA (appearing in this article) refused to sign the document.

Despite the great danger to civilians, Russia and Ukraine have used cluster munitions since the beginning of a full-scale invasion.

The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch, which investigates crimes against human rights, noted in its report that Russia used cluster munitions more often than Ukraine. At the same time, the Russian military has repeatedly targeted civilian targets, in particular, during the shelling of Kharkiv.

We will remind you that on March 31, 2022, the UN Office for Human Rights received evidence that Russian troops in Ukraine used cluster munitions against civilian targets.

We also reported that on July 2, 2022, the occupiers shelled Sloviyansk, Donetsk Region, using cluster munitions. Then 4 people were killed and another 7 were injured.

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