Human Rights Watch urges US to block new weapons for Ukraine
Photo: Human rights activists warn of the threat posed by Turkish artillery shells (Getty Images)
The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) is urging the US government not to allow Türkiye to transfer a new shipment of weapons to Ukraine.
Ankara plans to transfer tens of thousands of cluster missiles, rocket munitions, and artillery shells, which have been stored in Turkish warehouses for decades, to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Human rights activists point out that these munitions contain more than 10 million explosive submunitions.
"These weapons, which contain over 10 million explosive submunitions, were originally produced in part by Türkiye under licenses from the US initiated in 1987. The artillery projectiles that make up the bulk of the proposed deal were removed from US service in 1994, when the howitzers that fired this ammunition were retired from US service," the statement reads.
According to human rights activists, the presence of obsolete cluster munitions in the conflict zone poses a humanitarian threat to the civilian population, the consequences of which will be tragic.
"The impact on civilians of these more than 30-year-old inaccurate and unreliable munitions is what motivated 112 countries to ban the weapon by joining the international Convention on Cluster Munitions," says Nicole Widdersheim, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Washington.
What US says
Recently, a senior US State Department official told the media that the US government is prepared to support Ankara's decision regarding Ukraine.
According to him, Türkiye plans to reduce its stockpiles of older weapons to focus financial resources on modernizing and maintaining its existing systems.
US State Department says Ukraine seeks to acquire these systems to strengthen its offensive and defensive fire support capabilities as it resists the Russian invasion. It adds Ukraine already possesses ammunition of the same or virtually identical type.
Türkiye recently called on Ukraine and Russia to declare a moratorium on strikes in the Black Sea.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry hinted that Russia might use nuclear weapons.
