Cluster Bombs Will Kill Ukraine Civilians, Curse Land for Generations - Former CIA Officer

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US cluster munitions sent by the Biden administration will not win the war for Kiev, but will be a curse on Ukraine's farmland for years, former CIA station chief Phil Giraldi told Sputnik.

Earlier Friday, the Pentagon announced the US would deliver cluster munitions to Ukraine in a time-frame relevant to their counteroffensive.

"It [cluster munitions] will not win the war for Ukraine," Giraldi said. "What the bombs will do is kill a lot of civilians as they spread their charges wide and the unexploded buried ordnance will be a curse on Ukraine's farmland wherever they are deployed for a long time to come."

The former CIA officer said the decision comes as Ukraine is losing on the battlefield against Russia, measured by its failing counterattack which has been supported enthusiastically by NATO, and the chanceries in Europe and the United States.

Giraldi said the move also illustrates the hypocrisy of the Biden Administration, which criticized the alleged use of such weapons last year by Russia.

The United States was not signatory to international agreements to ban the use of such weapons, Giraldi added, the deployment of which most countries consider to be tantamount to a war crime akin to using gas or chemicals.

US Fully Aware of Escalation

US President Joe Biden said Washington is providing Ukraine with cluster munitions for a temporary period while it continues to produce enough 155mm artillery shells to supply Kiev amid Russia's special military operation.

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov called the decision a "gesture of desperation," and one that is pushing humanity closer to a new world war.

University of Illinois Professor of Law and UN war crimes consultant Francis Boyle believes the US decision is an escalation in the use of terror weapons.

The cluster munitions, Boyle added, will only exacerbate the conflict by dramatically increasing the number of civilian casualties.

Moreover, it seems to be paving the way for a dramatic escalation of the war at NATO’s Vilnius Summit next week in Lithuania, Boyle told Sputnik. "Despite what they say in public, the Biden administration must know and understand these escalatory dynamics," he added.

Among critics of the US' munitions transfer are Democrats who have accused Biden of putting at risk the country’s moral foundation as the controversial weaponry "blur the lines of the moral high ground."

A Ukrainian victory in the conflict is a victory for the democracies across the world, but also one that cannot come at the expense of US values and thus democracy itself, US Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) was quoted as saying in US media.