President Joe Biden defended what he called his “very difficult decision” to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine in an interview that aired on Sunday, saying the war-torn country “needed” the controversial weapons to fight Russian troops. invasive.
“It took me a while to convince myself to do it. But the main thing is that they have the weapons to stop the Russians now, to prevent them from stopping the Ukrainian offensive in these areas, or they don’t. And I think they needed them,” Biden said in a speech. interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”.
The administration’s announcement Friday that it would send cluster munitions to Ukraine in a US military aid package was pushed back by some fellow Biden Democrats, who pointed to surface-to-surface warheads, which disperse small munitions or bombs in wide areas. it can explode after battle and sometimes injure or kill innocent people.
Guns have been banned in more than 100 countries, and the White House suggested last year that Russia’s use of weapons in Ukraine was a potential war crime.
Biden said the measure was necessary now because the Ukrainian military is low on ammunition, stressing that it is a temporary measure.
“The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition, the ammunition they used to call 155-millimeter guns. This is a… this is an ammunition-related war, and they’re running out of that… ammunition, and we’re low on it.” And so what I finally did, I took the recommendation of the Department of Defense, not permanently, but to allow [their use] in this transition period,” he said in the interview on Friday.
Biden said the bombs would not be used in civilian areas.
While some Republicans have criticized Biden for sending the weapons, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said it was the right thing to do.
“Russia is dropping cluster bombs into Ukraine, the country of Ukraine, with impunity right now,” McCaul said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“All Ukrainians and [President Volodymyr] What Zelenskyy is asking for is to give them the same weapons that the Russians have to use in their own country against the Russians in their own country. They don’t want them to be used in Russia. They want them for self-defense to use against the Russians in their own country, Ukraine. I don’t see anything wrong with that,” McCaul said.
“These weapons would be a game changer. They are very effective and, in particular, hit the flanks of the troops inside the Ukraine. They would be a game changer on the counteroffensive,” he added.
However, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., told CNN that “cluster bombs should never be used. That’s crossing the line.”
Lee urged Biden to reconsider his decision “because they are very dangerous bombs.” Asked if he thought it might be a war crime if the administration didn’t change its position, Lee said: “What I think is that we would risk losing our moral leadership.”
