The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on the US to reject Türkiye’s request to allow the retransfer to Ukraine of tens of thousands of cluster munitions that have been in Türkiye’s stockpiles for decades, according to a report published on the organization’s website on Wednesday.
"Dumping obsolete cluster munitions into a conflict creates a humanitarian liability for civilians that is tragically foreseeable. The impact on civilians of these more than 30-year-old inaccurate and unreliable munitions is what motivated 112 countries to ban the weapon by joining the international Convention on Cluster Munitions," said Nicole Widdersheim, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch.
It is noted that these munitions were produced in part by Türkiye under US licenses initiated in 1987.
In addition to selling its entire inventory of 12 M270 multi-barrel rocket launchers, Türkiye’s proposed US$256 million deal includes the transfer of three types of cluster munitions: 70 M39 ATACMS ballistic missiles, each containing 950 M74 antipersonnel/anti-materiel submunitions, totaling 66,500 individual submunitions; 2,524 M26 rockets, each containing 644 M77 dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) submunitions, totaling 1,625,456 individual submunitions; and 47,000 M509A1 203mm artillery projectiles, each containing 180 M42 DPICM submunitions, totaling 8,460,000 individual submunitions.
"These types of cluster munitions are notorious for their record of not hitting their targets and hurting civilians.They should never be used. Congress can still act to stop this short-sighted and dangerous transfer," Widdersheim said.
In a letter submitted to Congress on August 6, 2026, notifying it of this deal, an unnamed senior State Department official noted that the US government is prepared to authorize this transfer and that Türkiye "seeks to reduce its inventory of older defense articles to focus its financial resources on modernization and sustaining existing systems". "Ukraine seeks to acquire these systems to bolster its offensive and defense fire support capabilities as it resists the Russian invasion. Ukraine already possesses munitions of the same or essentially similar type," he noted.
HRW notes that cluster munitions are inherently indiscriminate and have a history of creating deadly hazards for civilians whenever they are used, making it difficult to reconcile their use with the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks on civilians, which can be a war crime.
Although the US has not joined the treaty, an export moratorium has been enacted in the annual Defense Department budget since 2009. However, former US President Joseph Biden bypassed the moratorium between July 2023 and October 2024, concluding at least seven transfers of cluster munitions to Ukraine without disclosing the quantities provided. As detailed in Cluster Munition Monitor Report 2025, the US Foreign Assistance Act facilitates this workaround by allowing the president to determine that this type of security assistance is "vital to the security interests of the United States". It is not publicly known whether the administration of current US President Donald Trump has made a similar determination in this case to sidestep the export moratorium.
