Moscow will use its stockpile if Ukraine deploys the widely-banned munitions first, Putin said.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia had a “sufficient stockpile” of cluster bombs and reserved the right to use them if such munitions, the use of which he said he regarded as a crime, were deployed against Russian forces in Ukraine.

Ukraine said on Thursday it had received cluster bombs from the United States

  • 52fighters@kbin.social
    171·
    1 year ago

    Ukraine is using them to clear minefields planted by Russians who illegally entered the country for the purpose of mass murder. I think we can give Ukraine a pass on what type of munitions they think will be useful for saving lives.

    • skillissuer@lemmy.world
      5·
      1 year ago

      you’d need submunition to hit mine directly, if you want to use boom for demining, you’re looking for something like MCLIC or UR-77 (this might be a little bit counterproductive in build up areas). unless you mean EOD techs using submunitions as a donor charge, but this makes little sense, as you can use about anything to do this, including random recast AT mines and pieces of busted ERA bricks. repurposing DPICM elements this way would be unnecessarily dangerous operation

      conversely, if you use DPICM in combat, you might need to clear that area before your own troops even move in, in some cases. because of large number of these elements some will fail and it might pose risk to advancing force

      Ukrainians using DPICM is good, because it shortens time russians will be able to shell civilians, plant minefields and spread UXO