US, Ukraine, and Russia never signed on to the pact to ban cluster munitions
Cluster munitions would be highly effective at clearing out Russia's entrenched defensive lines
Ukraine is specifically requesting the munitions from the US
Western artillery ammo is starting to run short, so cluster munitions are needed to buy time until artillery shell production ramps up next spring
Russia is extensively using cluster munitions in Ukraine right now, and their munitions have a much worse dud rate than the western cluster munitions, so there's an argument that preventing Russia from being able to use their shittier cluster munitions is better in the long run

It sucks, but welcome to war

[–] iridaniotter@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 year ago

The dud rate refers to the percentage of unexploded rounds. In previous conflicts, cluster munitions have had a high dud rate, which meant that thousands of the unexploded bomblets remained behind and killed and maimed civilians. That's happened recently in conflicts in Syria and Yemen, but the grisly impact can be felt decades later, as seen in parts of Southeast Asia, where people are still killed by explosives from the Vietnam War.

It's like the depleted uranium story from earlier. Sure, you can request these things and use them, but it's a bad decision because you're just going to end up maiming and disabling generations to come.