WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to send cluster munitions to Ukraine to help it battle Russian invaders, U.S. officials said on Thursday, a move opposed by human rights groups but which would provide a powerful new element to Ukraine's counteroffensive.
A weapons aid package that includes cluster munitions fired by a 155 millimeter Howitzer cannon was expected to be announced Friday, said two U.S officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
The White House said sending cluster munitions to Ukraine is "under active consideration" but it had no announcement to make at this time. President Joe Biden is to attend a NATO summit next week in Vilnius, Lithuania, expected to be dominated by the war in Ukraine.
Human Rights Watch on Thursday called on Russia and Ukraine to stop using cluster munitions and urged the U.S. not to supply them. The group said in a report that both Russian and Ukrainian forces have used the weapons, which have killed Ukrainian civilians.
In order to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, Biden would need to sign a waiver, one of the people said, similar to one that was signed for exporting cluster munitions technology to South Korea in 2021.
In the aid package, which is expected to be well above $500 million in value, Ukraine will receive munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker armored personnel carriers, one of the officials said.
The package was still being finalized and could change, the officials said. It would be funded using Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which authorizes the president to transfer articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval during an emergency. The material will come from U.S. excess inventory.
The security assistance package would be the 42nd approved by the United States for Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022, for a total of more than $40 billion.
The U.S. military believes cluster munitions would be useful for Ukraine, a senior Pentagon official said in June, but they had not been approved for Kyiv yet because of congressional restrictions and concerns among allies.
Ukraine has urged members of Congress to press Biden's administration to approve sending Dual-Purpose Conventional Improved Munitions (DPICM).
The 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.
Ukraine has also been pushing for new Western fighter planes, including F-16s, as it pursues a counteroffensive.
"F-16 or any other equipment that we do need will give us an opportunity to move faster, to save more lives, to stand our ground for a longer time," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an ABC News interview broadcast on Thursday.
NATO members Denmark and the Netherlands are leading efforts by an international coalition to train pilots and support staff, to maintain aircraft and ultimately supply F-16s to Ukraine.
(Reporting by Mike Stone, additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland, Rami Ayyub and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Christina Fincher, Gareth Jones and David Gregorio)
