The Pentagon says cluster munitions provided by the United States had arrived in Ukraine
\nKYIV
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published Sunday that Russia has a \u201csufficient stockpile\u201d of cluster munitions, and warned that Russia \u201creserves the right to take reciprocal action\u201d if Ukraine uses the controversial weapons.
\nIn his first comments on the delivery of cluster munitions to Ukraine from the US, Putin said that Russia has not used cluster bombs in its war in Ukraine so far.
\n\u201cUntil now, we have not done this, we have not used it, and we have not had such a need,\u201d he said, although the use of cluster bombs by both Russia and Ukraine has been widely documented, including by The Associated Press and international humanitarian organizations, and cluster rounds have been found in the aftermath of Russian strikes.
\nRossiya TV reporter Pavel Zarubin published excerpts of the interview to his Telegram channel Sunday ahead of a scheduled broadcast Sunday night.
\nThe Pentagon said Thursday that cluster munitions provided by the United States had arrived in Ukraine.
\nThe munitions, which are bombs that open in the air and release scores of smaller bomblets, are seen by the US as a way to get Kyiv critically needed ammunition to help bolster its offensive and push through Russian front lines. US leaders debated the thorny issue for months, before President Joe Biden made the final decision last week.
\nCluster bombs have long been criticized by humanitarian groups, and some US allies, because those used in previous conflicts have had a high \u201cdud rate,\u201d meaning that they often leave behind unexploded bomblets that can harm civilians long after a battle has ended.
\nProponents argue that Russia has already been using cluster munitions in Ukraine and that the weapons the US is providing have been improved to leave behind far fewer unexploded rounds. Ukraine has promised to use them only away from densely populated areas.
\nOn the ground, the Ukrainian military said in a regular update Sunday morning that over the previous 24 hours Russia had launched two Iranian-made Shahed exploding drones, two cruise missiles and two anti-aircraft guided missiles, in addition to 40 airstrikes and 46 attacks from multiple rocket launchers.
\nThe Ukrainian General Staff wrote that Russia continues to concentrate on offensive operations in Ukraine\u2019s industrial east. Donetsk regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said Sunday that two residents of the region were killed on Saturday, and one other person was wounded.
\nElsewhere in the country, two boys, aged eight and 10, were wounded when an explosive device left by Russian forces detonated in the southern region of Kherson on Sunday, according to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General\u2019s Office.
\nRegional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said that Russia had launched 69 shelling attacks against Kherson region. A 59-year-old man died on Saturday when attempting to disarm a round in the regional capital, also called Kherson.
\nYurii Malashko, governor of the neighboring, partly occupied, Zaporizhzhia region, said Russia had attacked 13 populated areas in the region, wounding seven people in the town of Stepnohirsk.
\nMoscow-installed authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea on Sunday reported \u201ca massive and prolonged\u201d drone attack overnight targeting Sevastopol, the peninsula\u2019s largest port, which hosts Russia\u2019s Black Sea Fleet. According to Moscow-installed Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhaev, air defense shot down all of the drones and there was no damage.
\nVyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia\u2019s Belgorod region, said that a woman was killed Sunday by shelling in the town of Shebekino near the border with Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Pentagon says cluster munitions provided by the United States had arrived in Ukraine KYIV Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published Sunday that Russia has a \u201csufficient stockpile\u201d of cluster munitions, and warned that Russia \u201creserves the right to take reciprocal action\u201d if Ukraine uses the controversial weapons. In his first comments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-343527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n