Russia has 'sufficient' cluster munitions for tit-for-tat response, claims President Putin

In an interview published Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed his nation has enough cluster munitions to respond if Ukraine used the weapons.

Ukraine began receiving cluster bombs from the US, raising worries about the long-term harm to civilians presented by bomblets that fail to explode.

“Russia has a sufficient stockpile of various kinds of cluster munitions,” Putin told a state-television journalist.

The controversial weapons can disperse up to several hundred small explosive charges, which can remain unexploded in the ground.

“If they are used against us, we reserve ourselves the right to tit-for-tat actions,” Putin said.

He added Russia had not yet used the weapons despite a “certain shortage of munitions at some point.”

Human Rights Watch and Ukrainian soldiers have both accused Russia of employing cluster bombs on the battlefield previously.

They are prohibited in a number of nations, most notably in Europe, that are signatories to the 2008 Oslo Convention, to which Russia, the United States, and Ukraine are not party.

Humanitarian organisations have vehemently criticised the United States plan to provide Ukraine with cluster weapons.

US President Joe Biden called the decision “very difficult,” but emphasised that Ukraine needed more weaponry to replenish its depleting supplies.