Exclusive-Ukraine seeks US cluster bombs to adapt for drone use - lawmakers

FILE PHOTO: Bands broken, dozens of 155mm Base Burn Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions rounds wait to be loaded into self-propelled howitzers and artillery support vehicles September 20, 2016 at Camp Hovey in South Korea. U.S. Army photo/2nd Lt. Gabriel Jenko/Handout via REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ukraine has broadened a request for controversial cluster bombs from the United States to include a weapon that it wants to cannibalize to drop the anti-armor bomblets it contains on Russian forces from drones, according to two U.S. lawmakers.

Kyiv has urged members of Congress to press the White House to approve sending the weapons but it is by no means certain that the Biden administration will sign off on that. Cluster munitions, banned by more than 120 countries, normally release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area, threatening civilians.