to parliaments of foreign states and international parliamentary organisations in relation to the decision of the United States of America to deliver cluster munitions to Ukraine
The Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation expresses deep concern and condemns the provocative decision of the US Presidential Administration to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions.
The hypocrisy of the American leadership is obvious. One and a half years ago, the White House press secretary said the use of cluster munitions was a war crime, and now Washington has easily abandoned its previous position and adopted the opposite position to serve its momentary interests.
We consider it necessary to remind you that cluster munitions were used by the United States of America in many of the armed conflicts it started, from Vietnam and Yugoslavia to Afghanistan. At the same time, the experience of using cluster munitions in various regions of the world shows that their unexploded elements can detonate many years after hostilities have ended, killing and injuring civilians, including women, children and the elderly. The majority of cluster munitions casualties are injured while carrying out their everyday activities And one third of recorded cluster munitions casualties are children.
Washington cannot be blind to the nullity of the Kiev authorities’ promises to use delivered indiscriminate weapons in a careful and responsible way. Civilians will inevitably bear the brunt every time the West delivers more deadly weapons to Kiev.
By supplying cluster munitions, Washington becomes complicit in the mining of vast areas and bears full responsibility for the death and injury of innocent civilians. The International Committee of the Red Cross has repeatedly noted the humanitarian danger of cluster munitions that “kill and maim indiscriminately and cause widespread human suffering.” The United Nations and some foreign states have already condemned the decision of the United States of America.
The Russian senators note that the delivery of cluster munitions to Ukraine is evidence of powerlessness amid the failure of the much-trumpeted Ukrainian counteroffensive. If the Kiev regime uses cluster munitions, the Russian Federation reserves the right to respond with tough countermeasures. This new “wonder weapon” that Washington and Kiev are banking on will not affect the course of the special military operation conducted by the Russian Federation, and its goals and objectives will be reached in full.
The Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation urges parliaments of foreign states and international
parliamentary organisations to condemn the decision of the United States of America to deliver cluster munitions to Ukraine, which will become yet another
step towards a dangerous escalation of the conflict and will have serious
humanitarian consequences.
Тне Federation Council
of the Federal Assembly
of the Russian Federation