Putin says Russia has stockpiled cluster bombs and will use them in Ukraine if it has to

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council, via video link in Moscow, Russia July 14, 2023. Sputnik/Alexey Babushkin/Kremlin via REUTERS/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said Russia had a "sufficient stockpile" of cluster bombs and reserved the right to use them if such munitions, the use of which he said he regarded as a crime, were deployed against Russian forces in Ukraine.

Ukraine said on Thursday it had received cluster bombs from the United States, its biggest military backer, which says the munitions are needed to compensate for shell shortages faced by Kyiv's forces at a time when they are mounting a counteroffensive.