German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is demanding that the US not be “blocked” in trying to deliver cluster bombs to the Ukrainian army, while defending his country’s official opposition to the controversial weapon, AFP reports. Agerpres.

“Germany’s position against cluster munitions is still justified. But in the current situation you cannot block the United States,” he said in an interview broadcast by German channel ZDF on Sunday.

“If Ukraine no longer has the means to defend itself or if those who help it defend itself stop doing so, then that will be the end of Ukraine,” said Steinmeier, whose mandate is essentially symbolic and ceremonial.

On Friday, the United States announced new military aid to Ukraine against Russia, including cluster munitions, surpassing a new threshold in the type of weapons supplied to Kyiv. Washington’s statement caused sharp criticism from non-governmental organizations and put European countries in an awkward situation.

This highly controversial weapon can disperse up to several hundred small explosive charges and has been blamed for numerous collateral casualties among the civilian population.

They are prohibited in many countries, especially European, signatories of the Oslo Convention of 2008, to which neither the USA, nor Ukraine, nor Russia are parties.

Steinmeier recalled on Sunday that he “signed” the convention on behalf of his country when he was foreign minister. But “there is no doubt about who is the aggressor and who is the victim, and that we must stand with the victims,” ​​he added.

“We are sure that our American friends did not take the decision to deliver the ammunition in question lightly,” said Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesman for the German government led by Olaf Scholz, on Friday.

“We are also dealing with a special configuration here, Ukraine uses ammunition to protect its own population (…) to liberate its own territory,” he said, recalling that “Russia has already massively used cluster munitions” in Ukraine.

Paris and London have also confirmed their opposition to these weapons in the name of the Oslo Convention, which they signed. “We understand the compromise reached by the United States in its desire to help Ukraine,” the Quai d’Orsay said.