![]() ![]() He could face up to five years in prison and is due to be sentenced on 14 December.Īs we reported earlier, Ukraine has claimed responsibility for an attack on Crimea Bridge last month using "Sea Baby" - an unmanned sea drone that dumped 850kg of explosives on the bridge (see post at 10.26).īut what do we know about sea drones and how effective are they? McGonigal pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiring to launder money and violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. She added he was in negotiations along with co-conspirators to receive a fee of $650,000 to $3m to hunt for electronic files revealing hidden assets of $500m belonging to the oligarch's business rival. McGonigal was also trying to help Mr Deripaska get off the sanctions list, assistant US attorney Rebecca Dell said. Mr Deripaska has been under US sanctions since 2018 for reasons related to Russia's He told a federal judge in New York that he accepted more than $17,000 to help Mr Deripaska collect derogatory information about another Russian oligarch who was a business competitor. McGonigal was a former special agent in charge of the FBI's counterintelligence division in New York. Regardless, Ukraine is embroiled in a war of national survival, so I suspect Mr Zelenskyy welcomes any offer of support, mindful of the legacy risks.Ī former high-ranking FBI counterintelligence official has pleaded guilty to conspiring to violateīy going to work, after he retired, for an oligarch he once investigated.Ĭharles McGonigal, 55, said he was "deeply remorseful" for work he did in 2021 for the billionaire industrialist So, although most Western countries are against the use of cluster munitions - in principle - they also recognise that Ukraine has a specific need, that Volodymyr Zelenskyy would own the legacy risk, and that if such weapons provided the breakthrough that Ukraine needed, then the decision to use the weapons might be justified. The rounds would be used on Ukraine soil, so Ukraine would "own" the legacy of their use, and since Ukraine would need to clear the Russian minefields post-war, the unexploded cluster munitions would be cleared at the same time. However, the 155mm cluster artillery round carries up to 88 sub-munitions, and could provide an effective way to blast a corridor through the Russian minefields. Traditional mine-clearing capability is slow and dangerous and the forces involved are vulnerable to enemy attack. And, Ukraine needed a way to break through the extensive minefield that formed a core element of Russia's defences. The US had large stockpiles of 155mm cluster artillery rounds, which would bridge the gap until alternative supplies were available. ![]() Notwithstanding that modern cluster munitions have a much lower dud rate – around 2-3% - the US recognises the use of cluster munitions is very controversial.īut, Ukrainian supplies of 155mm artillery ammunition were running low, and Western efforts to increase supplies takes time. However, Russia, the US and Ukraine are not signatories to that ban. ![]() As a result, the development of precision weapons offered an alternative way to strike mobile targets, and more than 120 nations subsequently decided to ban the use of cluster munitions. Reports suggest more than 98% of the casualties caused by cluster munitions were civilians, and over half of these were children. Western weapons routinely had a failure rate of 10%, and Soviet weapons were often significantly worse - up to 40% failure rate.Īs a result, use of cluster weapons has left a legacy of unexploded ordnance. However, using cluster weapons that delivered ordnance over a wide area dramatically increased the chances of striking such targets.Ĭluster munitions such as the BL 755 contained 147 sub-munitions, each of which could destroy a Soviet tank, but since area weapons significantly increased the chances of hitting the intended target, most of the sub-munitions would miss the target itself.Īlthough most of the sub-munitions would detonate on the ground, the "dud" rate was not insignificant. We've been putting your questions on the war in Ukraine to our analysts and foreign correspondents - and military analyst Sean Bell answers two today after Russia hinted yesterday that it would reconsider using banned cluster munitions in Ukraine.Ĭorinthian Humblegast asks: "Why are we not advising the Americans not to send cluster munitions to Ukraine?"Ĭolin adds: "Has an artillery round been developed that can be used to clear minefields, that Ukraine could use?"īefore the advent of GPS-guided precision weapons, it was very hard to strike mobile military targets. ![]()
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