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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.
Cluster munitions are banned in more than 100 countries because
they typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that
can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Some of them
inevitably fail to explode and can pose a danger for decades,
particularly to children.
Kyiv has said it will use cluster bombs to dislodge
concentrations of enemy soldiers when trying to take back its
own territory, but will not use them on Russian territory.
Putin told state TV Moscow would respond in kind if necessary.
"I want to note that in the Russian Federation there is a
sufficient stockpile of different kinds of cluster bombs. We
have not used them yet. But of course if they are used against
us, we reserve the right to take reciprocal action."
Putin said he regarded the use of cluster bombs as a crime and
that Russia had so far not needed to use them itself despite
having suffered its own ammunition issues in the past.
Human Rights Watch says both Moscow and Kyiv have used cluster
munitions. Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. have not signed up to
the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the production,
stockpiling, use and transfer of the weapons.
Putin also told state TV he saw nothing wrong in Russian
specialists examining captured Western military equipment and
missiles, such as the Storm Shadow missiles Britain supplied to
Ukraine, in order to see if there was anything useful that could
be used in Russia's own military hardware.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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