Six member states have not signed the Oslo Convention banning such bombs, which often cause massive collateral damage.
By Philippe de Bocque
hasAfter the delivery of heavy tanks to Ukraine, a new critical debate on cluster munitions is on the horizon. According to an AFP report, “a European country” has offered to send cluster bombs to Ukraine. Traveling to Washington, he confirmed that his government had approved the delivery after Ukraine’s request, “responsible” for this country (he did not want to be identified), and sought the agreement of Germany involved in its preparation. Explosives. “It may take some time,” the official said.
The problem is that most member states of the European Union (including Germany and Belgium) are signatories to the 2008 Oslo Convention, which prohibits the use, production or transfer (directly or indirectly) of such weapons. Within the EU, according to the latest United Nations census, only six countries have not signed the treaty: Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Poland and Romania. Globally, 110 states have signed and ratified a total of 193 treaties.
As its name suggests, a cluster munition consists of a shell-shaped container containing small explosive projectiles called “submunitions”. On impact, the main bomb releases submunitions that travel in all directions and often cause significant collateral damage.
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The UN has repeatedly warned against the use of these types of shells by Russia (which is neither a signatory to the treaty nor the US or Ukraine) since the invasion of Ukraine began.
“The Russians used all kinds of weapons that are a hundred times worse than cluster bombs,” an “anonymous” European official told AFP, vowing that Ukraine would “win the war.”
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