US ‘to send cluster bombs to Kyiv for first time’ in war against Russia – live

President Joe Biden’s administration has reportedly decided to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine and is expected to announce on Friday that the Pentagon will send thousands of them as part of a new military aid package worth up to $800m for the war effort against Russia, according to people familiar with the decision.

The decision comes despite widespread concerns that the bombs have a track record of causing civilian casualties and sparked a call from the United Nations to both Russia and Ukraine to avoid using them.

The Pentagon says it will provide munitions that have a reduced “dud rate,” meaning fewer unexploded rounds that can result in unintended civilian deaths.

US said on Thursday they expect the military aid to Ukraine will be announced on Friday.

The weapons will come from Pentagon stocks and include Bradley and Stryker armored vehicles and an array of ammunition, such as rounds for howitzers and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, officials said.

Nato leaders will agree next week to help modernise Ukraine‘s armed forces, create a new high-level forum for consultations and reaffirm that it will join their alliance one day, the organisation’s top civilian official has said.

But the war-torn country will not start membership talks soon.

At a two-day summit beginning nextTuesday in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, US president Joe Biden and his counterparts will also agree to boost defence spending as allies pour weapons, ammunition and other support such as uniforms and medical equipment into Ukraine, 17 months into the war.

My colleague Eleanor Noyce reports:

The head of the UN nuclear agency said Friday he was pushing for access to the roof of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, following reports from Ukrainian officials that the Russians had planted explosives there.

The plant was seized by Russia, in March 2022, in the first weeks of the war, raising fears of a nuclear accident.

The Russians have only granted limited access to officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency, citing the security situation.

Wrapping up a four-day visit to Japan, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said his agency was making progress on access to Zaporizhzhia, but there had been “some limitations.”

“It’s like a conversation and I’m pushing to get as much access as possible,” Mr Grossi said, in an interview with the Associated Press in Tokyo, adding that there was “marginal improvement.”

The UN atomic watchdog has repeatedly cautioned over the possibility of a radiation catastrophe like the one at Chernobyl, in northern Ukraine, after a reactor exploded in 1986.

Ukraine would welcome receiving cluster munitions from the United States because they would have an “extraordinary psycho-emotional impact” on Russian forces, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday.

US officials speaking on condition of anonymity this week said a weapons aid package that includes cluster bombs was expected to be announced as soon as Friday.

Such a move is opposed by human rights groups but could provide a powerful new element to a counteroffensive against Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

“Undoubtedly, the transfer of additional volumes of shells to Ukraine is a very significant contribution to the acceleration of de-occupation procedures,” presidential political adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.

“Especially if we are talking about cluster ammunition, which is undoubtedly capable of having an extraordinary psycho-emotional impact on already demoralised Russian occupation groups.”

The White House said on Thursday that sending cluster munitions to Ukraine was “under active consideration” but that it had no announcement to make.

Nato leaders will reaffirm that Ukraine will become a member of the military alliance and also unite on how to bring Kyiv closer to this goal when they meet in Vilnius on Tuesday and Wednesday, secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday.

“For 500 days, Moscow has brought death and destruction to the heart of Europe,” Mr Stoltenberg told reporters in a news conference in Brussels previewing the gathering.

“Our summit will send a clear message: Nato stands united, and Russia’s aggression will not pay.”

Nato leader Jens Stoltenberg has commented on reports the US is considering supplying cluster bombs to Ukraine, as the war with Russia nears its 500-day mark.

Mr Stoltenberg told a press conference on Friday that “Nato does not have a position” on the Biden administration’s latest move, adding: “This will be for governments to decide, not for Nato to decide.”

He also said: “We we are facing a brutal war, and we have to remember this brutality is reflected that every day we see casualties, and that cluster munitions are used by both sides.

“And Russia used cluster munitions to invade another country. Ukraine is using cluster munitions to defend itself.”

Read more about why these weapons are so controversial here:

The Kremlin on Friday said it would closely follow the results of a meeting in Turkey between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan, at which the potential extension of the Black Sea grain deal will be discussed.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin may talk with Erdogan soon, but no date has yet been set, Reuters reported.

Russia has repeatedly threatened to exit the deal – under which it guaranteed the safety of grain ships heading to and from Ukrainian ports through waters it controls – amid the ongoing war.

Germany will not supply cluster ammunition to Ukraine as it is a signatory to a convention banning the production and use of that type of weapon, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday in Bern.

“Germany has signed the [Convention on Cluster Munitions] so it is no option for us,” Mr Pistorius told reporters after meeting his Austrian and Swiss counterparts.

“As for those countries that have not signed the convention – China, Russia, Ukraine and the US – it is not up to me to comment on their actions,” he added.

On Friday, it was reported the Biden administration was considering sending the controversial weapons to aid Kyiv in the ongoing war against Russia.

More than half of adults who fled Ukraine due to the war want to stay living in the UK even when it is safe to return to their home country, a new survey has suggested.

Some 52 per cent of respondents said they intend to live in the UK most of the time when they feel it is safe to return to Ukraine, according to research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The majority of these people said this decision was because there are more opportunities for work in the UK.

The survey, published on Friday, was based on data collected from 10,709 people aged 18 and above between 27 April and 15 May 2023.

Just over a quarter of adults said they intend to return to Ukraine when they feel it is safe to do so, with 68 per cent of those people saying they would leave the UK as soon as they felt it was safe to.