The Biden administration is considering sending a controversial class of weapons to Kyiv in the hopes that it will help Ukrainian forces push Russia out of the occupied territories and win the war for the embattled nation. But there’s one big catch that worries officials. 

Cluster bombs have been banned in hundreds of countries according to NBC News and their use by Russian forces earlier in the war has been commented on by Congress and human rights groups for its brutality, yet the U.S. is considering sending them to Kyiv. 

Two senior officials told NBC News on June 29th that an announcement about sending cluster munitions to Ukraine could come as early as July while the Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said Ukraine’s allies were considering the move.

“The Ukrainians have asked for it, other European countries have provided some of that, the Russians are using it — there’s a decision-making process ongoing,” Milley said while speaking at an event at the National Press Club in Washington on June 30th.

While the move may help Ukraine in a big way on the battlefield it will also put the United States in a difficult position since cluster bombs are one of the most universally reviled modern weapons of war, so much so the United Nations has tried to impose their universal ban.

Cluster bombs, or cluster munitions, are a type of weapon that contain a multitude of explosive submunitions which can be launched from the ground, air, or sea in order to coat a large area with several hundred explosives according to the Cluster Munitions Coalition.

The area can be as large as several football fields in size and anyone within the cluster munitions strike zone—whether they be military or civilian—are likely to be killed by the submunition or at the very least seriously injured.

The weapons are so dangerous that as of April 2023, at least 123 countries had signed on to the UN’s 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions—a treaty that bans the use of cluster munitions that neither Russia, Ukraine, nor the United States is a signatory.

Human Rights Watch noted that since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, Russia has used cluster munitions in attacks that have led to thousands of civilian casualties as well as the damage and destruction of civilian hospitals, homes, and schools.

However, while cluster bombs are an extremely dangerous weapon of war they’re also a very effective battlefield tool and would give Ukraine an edge against Russian forces in their fight to push the Kremlin’s armies out of the territory they occupy in the country. 

(With inputs from agencies)