Flashback 2022: "Psaki: Use of Cluster Bombs Could Amount to War Crime"

Biden will send thousands of cluster bombs to Ukraine.

The US has decided to send cluster munitions to Ukraine to help its military push back Russian forces entrenched along the front lines - despite the ex-White House press secretary saying last year that Russia's use of the bombs was a 'war crime'.

The Biden administration has been weighing up a decision on sending the munitions since December, and is expected to announce on Friday it will send thousands of them as part of a new military aid package worth $800million.

Cluster munitions explode and disperse a series of smaller bombs over a wide area, often killing civilians. More than 120 nations have signed a 15-year-old treaty banning their use, but Ukraine and Russia have both deployed them - and Ukraine's supplies of all types of ammunition are dwindling.

When, five days into the war, Jen Psaki, then the White House press secretary, was asked about the Russian use of cluster munitions, she said: 'We have seen the reports. If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime.'

The White House has now shifted its position, and is overruling a law which bans the transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1 percent. Some with a higher failure rate will be sent to Ukraine.

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