RFK Jr. Torches Biden For Handing ‘Horrific’ Cluster Munitions To Ukraine

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blasted the Biden administration Friday following an announcement that the Department of Defense would transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine.

The Biden administration announced plans to primarily send M864 155-millimeter artillery shells, known as Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM), which dispense smaller explosive weapons over an area to attack personnel and vehicles, reversing a previous decision to withhold the weapons. Cluster munitions are controversial due to the risk posed by “dud” submunitions that could cause harm to civilians long after a conflict is over and were last manufactured in the 1990s, The Washington Post reported.

“Cluster bombs are munitions so horrific for civilians that more than a hundred nations have signed an international treaty banning them,” Kennedy, who is challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in the 2024 election, posted on Twitter. “Now the Biden administration is preparing to send them to Ukraine.”

“These munitions scatter bomblets across the landscape,” Kennedy said in a follow-on post. “Many fail to explode — until children pick them up later. They have caused thousands of injuries and deaths to civilians.”

Russia invaded Ukraine Feb. 24, 2022, launching a massive attack across the latter country. The United States has sent over $100 billion in aid to Ukraine, and announced in January they would send 31 M1 Abrams main battle tanks following a December announcement that a battery of MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missiles would be provided to that country.

“Fortunately for Biden, there’s no anti-war left in the US Congress to bother him about this,” journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted. “There are a few left-ish commentators, otherwise loyal to Democrats, who are making some noise about it, but by and large this will go forward without protest.”