Cluster bombs won't have significant impact on situation in Ukraine: Report

Former US officials and military analysts have said that globally-banned cluster bombs won't have a significant impact on the situation in Ukraine on the frontlines in the short run, echoing remarks made by former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter in an interview with Press TV.

Citing military experts, The New York Times reported on Friday that the controversial weaponry will not "immediately help" Ukraine’s offensive and would only allow Kiev’s troops to hold out as they face a drastic ammunition shortage.

"The scale of effect will be modest," said Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London.

He added that the real impact could be only seen when "Ukraine has significantly more ammo."

US Undersecretary of defense for policy Colin Kahl had said that the cluster munitions would just allow Ukraine to "sustain the artillery fight for the foreseeable future."

The analysts said the Ukrainian troops are likely to use cluster munitions to sustain the high rate of artillery fire as they revert to Soviet-style heavy artillery shelling of the Russian positions.

"It looks like they’re back to an artillery duel," Amael Kotlarski of the defense intelligence company Janes told the newspaper.

Senior US officials "had privately expressed frustration" over the issue in recent weeks, the Times reported, adding that the artillery duel strategy is less efficient and more costly.

The US announced on July 7 it would send Kiev cluster munitions as part of an $800-million security package intended to help Ukrainian forces against Russia, despite concerns over the long-term risk posed to civilians by bomblets that fail to explode.

US President Joe Biden said last week that the decision to provide the munitions was "very difficult," but that Ukrainian forces were "running out of ammunition."

On Thursday, former UN weapons inspector Ritter said that Washington's decision to provide Ukraine with cluster bombs is "an act of desperation."

US delivery of cluster bombs to Ukraine an 'act of desperation': Ex-US intelligence officer

A former US intelligence officer describes the delivery of cluster bombs to Ukraine as an "act of desperation."

He added that the munitions “will make Ukraine weaker for two reasons. One, there will be less impact than a conventional high explosive round. They will have a less destructive impact on the Russians. Two, they are going to prompt a Russian countermeasure which is going to be in the form of improved cluster munitions used by the Russians.”

"The Russians currently have a ten-fold superiority in artillery over the Ukrainians. Ukraine is about to find itself saturated with cluster bomb units which is going to result in higher casualty rates on the part of the Ukrainians and less efficiency on the battlefield," he added.

Ritter added that the United States and its allies had failed to provide Ukraine with the promised weapons and munitions to overpower the Russian side.

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