“In the event that the United States supplies cluster munitions to Ukraine, the Russian armed forces will be forced to use similar weapons against the armed forces of Ukraine as a response,” Shoigu said on Tuesday.

“It should be noted that Russia has cluster munitions in service… for all occasions… They are much more effective than American ones…,” he said.

The US announced last week it would supply Ukraine with cluster munitions – explosive weapons that typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets over a wide area. They are banned by over 100 countries, including Britain and Japan.

According to the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, these supplies endanger the lives of civilians and seek to prolong the crisis.

According to U.S. sources, Ukraine will receive 155-millimeter М864 cluster munitions for artillery, particularly for М109 Paladin self-propelled guns and M777 towed howitzers.

The U.S. military claims that between 5 and 14% of cluster munitions fail to explode because they have been stored for years. In this case they will behave like mines that threaten the civilian population even after the conflict is over.

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