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The White House said Ukrainian forces are using US-supplied cluster munitions on the battlefield, as Kiev seeks momentum in its grinding counter-offensive.
Washington provided arms to Ukraine for the first time earlier this month as Kiev tries to drive out entrenched Russian forces and retake territory it lost in the early months of Moscow’s invasion last year.
Many countries ban the weapons, which disperse up to several hundred small explosive charges that can remain unexploded in the ground, because of the long-term risks they pose to civilians.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday that Ukrainian forces had begun using the munitions “in the last week or so.”
“They use it appropriately, they use it effectively and they really have an impact on Russia’s defensive formations and Russia’s defensive maneuvers,” he said.
Moscow’s forces still occupy large swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine and for more than a month in the long-awaited counter-offensive in Kiev, large parts of the front appear immobilized.
Earlier this week, a senior presidential aide in Kiev told AFP the process would be “long and difficult”.
Ukrainian officials said Thursday that Russia bombed the Ukrainian ports of Mykolaiv and Odessa with drones and missiles in the third consecutive night of “hellish” strikes.
Officials said at least three people were killed and more than 20 wounded in the strikes, and they released pictures of buildings burning and partially collapsed.
In Odessa, a man was found “under the rubble,” said district governor Oleg Kipper, while an elderly couple were murdered in Mykolaiv.
Oleksey Luganchenko, 72, stood outside a collapsed building in the city, saying the dead couple were his sister and her husband.
Who needs this war? Luganchenko said.
“I told them they should leave and now they are dead.”
On Thursday, Kiev said it would treat ships in the Black Sea destined for Russian-controlled ports as potential carriers for military cargo.
The announcement reflects a move Russia took after the Kremlin withdrew from a major grain export deal to facilitate the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea.
After invading Russia last year, its warships blocked Ukraine’s ports until the two sides agreed to a grain export deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
This enabled the export of more than 32 million tons of Ukrainian grain over the past year, providing relief to countries facing severe food shortages such as Afghanistan, Sudan and Yemen.
But Moscow said on Monday it had exited the deal after months of complaining that provisions allowing exports of Russian food and fertilizer were not respected.
Since the deal collapsed, Ukraine has accused Russia of targeting grain supplies and critical infrastructure for grain shipments.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture said that the strike on Odessa destroyed 60,000 tons of grain, which was destined for export, the main world producer.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the impact of the attacks went beyond Ukraine.
“We are already seeing the negative impact on global wheat and maize prices, which is affecting everyone, especially vulnerable groups in the Global South,” Guterres said in a statement from his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Ukraine has already said it would be willing to continue grain exports from its southern ports despite Russian threats. It called on the United Nations and neighboring countries to secure safe passage for the shipments through joint patrols.
The Moscow-appointed governor of Crimea said a Ukrainian drone strike destroyed four administrative buildings and killed a teenage girl.
It came a day after an unprovoked fire at a military outpost and an attack on the only bridge connecting the annexed peninsula to mainland Russia earlier in the week.
A security source told AFP that the Ukrainian forces carried out the attack on the Kerch Bridge with seaborne drones.
On the front, the fighting is concentrated in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev’s counter-offensive is making slow progress against Russian defensive lines.
In Settlement New York, shrouded in smoke from nearby battlefields, Russian strikes have targeted its chemical plant.
“It may be because their attack on our village has stopped,” factory director Sergei Dmitrenko, 34, told AFP.
Maybe this is their new tactic.
Washington provided arms to Ukraine for the first time earlier this month as Kiev tries to drive out entrenched Russian forces and retake territory it lost in the early months of Moscow’s invasion last year.
Many countries ban the weapons, which disperse up to several hundred small explosive charges that can remain unexploded in the ground, because of the long-term risks they pose to civilians.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday that Ukrainian forces had begun using the munitions “in the last week or so.”
“They use it appropriately, they use it effectively and they really have an impact on Russia’s defensive formations and Russia’s defensive maneuvers,” he said.
Moscow’s forces still occupy large swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine and for more than a month in the long-awaited counter-offensive in Kiev, large parts of the front appear immobilized.
Earlier this week, a senior presidential aide in Kiev told AFP the process would be “long and difficult”.
Ukrainian officials said Thursday that Russia bombed the Ukrainian ports of Mykolaiv and Odessa with drones and missiles in the third consecutive night of “hellish” strikes.
Officials said at least three people were killed and more than 20 wounded in the strikes, and they released pictures of buildings burning and partially collapsed.
In Odessa, a man was found “under the rubble,” said district governor Oleg Kipper, while an elderly couple were murdered in Mykolaiv.
Oleksey Luganchenko, 72, stood outside a collapsed building in the city, saying the dead couple were his sister and her husband.
Who needs this war? Luganchenko said.
“I told them they should leave and now they are dead.”
On Thursday, Kiev said it would treat ships in the Black Sea destined for Russian-controlled ports as potential carriers for military cargo.
The announcement reflects a move Russia took after the Kremlin withdrew from a major grain export deal to facilitate the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea.
After invading Russia last year, its warships blocked Ukraine’s ports until the two sides agreed to a grain export deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
This enabled the export of more than 32 million tons of Ukrainian grain over the past year, providing relief to countries facing severe food shortages such as Afghanistan, Sudan and Yemen.
But Moscow said on Monday it had exited the deal after months of complaining that provisions allowing exports of Russian food and fertilizer were not respected.
Since the deal collapsed, Ukraine has accused Russia of targeting grain supplies and critical infrastructure for grain shipments.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture said that the strike on Odessa destroyed 60,000 tons of grain, which was destined for export, the main world producer.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the impact of the attacks went beyond Ukraine.
“We are already seeing the negative impact on global wheat and maize prices, which is affecting everyone, especially vulnerable groups in the Global South,” Guterres said in a statement from his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Ukraine has already said it would be willing to continue grain exports from its southern ports despite Russian threats. It called on the United Nations and neighboring countries to secure safe passage for the shipments through joint patrols.
The Moscow-appointed governor of Crimea said a Ukrainian drone strike destroyed four administrative buildings and killed a teenage girl.
It came a day after an unprovoked fire at a military outpost and an attack on the only bridge connecting the annexed peninsula to mainland Russia earlier in the week.
A security source told AFP that the Ukrainian forces carried out the attack on the Kerch Bridge with seaborne drones.
On the front, the fighting is concentrated in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev’s counter-offensive is making slow progress against Russian defensive lines.
In Settlement New York, shrouded in smoke from nearby battlefields, Russian strikes have targeted its chemical plant.
“It may be because their attack on our village has stopped,” factory director Sergei Dmitrenko, 34, told AFP.
Maybe this is their new tactic.
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