RFK Jr. slams Biden for Ukraine cluster-bomb decision
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Saturday slammed President Biden for his plan to send indiscriminately lethal cluster bombs to Ukraine — suggesting that the choice ran afoul of Biden’s own ethics.
“Last year, WH Press Secretary Jen Psaki called the use of cluster bombs a ‘war crime.’ Now President Biden plans to send them to Ukraine,” the Democratic presidential candidate tweeted. “Stop the ceaseless escalation! It is time for peace.”
“Biden was opposed to cluster bombs In 1982 as well, when he opposed their sale to Israel,” Kennedy added. “What happened to his conscience?”
Biden on Friday sought to explain the “difficult” decision to provide the widely banned weapons. “The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition,” he said.
Cluster bombs’ powerful artillery shells scatter dozens of explosive submunitions over a wide area, killing and wounding unpredictably and often striking civilians.
Most members of NATO have joined a 111-nation pact banning all use, production, and transfer of cluster munitions — but not the United States, Russia or Ukraine.
In February 2022, soon after the Russian invasion began, Ukrainians accused the Kremlin of ordering cluster-bomb attacks on civilians in Bakhmut — a potential war crime, the Biden administration said at the time.