Ukraine’s requests for cluster munitions and phosphorus bombs are unreasonable. This was announced on February 18 by the head of the German Bundestag Committee on European Affairs, Anton Hofreiter, on the air of the TV channel NTV.
“Ukraine demands everything. I think this requirement is wrong. The fact that Kyiv demands something does not mean that it needs to be done,” the politician said.
He added that the demand arose due to the desperation of Kyiv after the insufficient implementation by Western countries of the promised supplies, in particular, Leopard 2 tanks.
Earlier, on February 14, Bundestag MP from the Left Party Sevim Dagleden said that Germany should consider refusing to supply Ukraine with weapons systems that are capable of firing cluster munitions. Dagdalen referred to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Prior to this, on January 10, Foreign Policy, citing US and European officials, wrote that Turkey has been supplying US-made cluster munitions to Ukraine since November 2022. We are talking about advanced dual-purpose conventional munitions (Dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, DPICM).
Member of the European Parliament (EP) from Germany Gunner Beck the next day commented to Izvestia on the information of the portal EUobserver that the European Parliament’s voluntary pension fund has invested in the weapons industry producing cluster munitions. He noted that if MPs invest in companies that manufacture and sell weapons banned in the world, then this “can be described as a dishonor.”
Since 2008, the International Convention on Cluster Munitions has been in force, prohibiting the use, transfer, production and storage of cluster munitions. It was signed by 113 countries and ratified by 84 more, and entered into force on August 1, 2010.
The parties that ratified the convention pledged “never and under no circumstances” to use cluster munitions; not develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer directly or indirectly cluster munitions to anyone; not to help, encourage or induce anyone to carry out activities prohibited for a state party under the convention.
China, Russia, USA, Ukraine and a number of other countries have not signed the convention.
Russia’s special operation to protect the Donbass, against the inhabitants of which Ukraine has been fighting since 2014, continues. The decision to hold it was made against the backdrop of the aggravated situation in the region due to increased shelling by Ukrainian troops.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
