Estonia has decided to provide Ukraine with 155mm artillery rounds and ask Germany for permission to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine.
“Estonia has decided to provide Ukraine with 155mm artillery rounds. I do not consider it necessary to talk about the details of agreements between the armed forces of Estonia and Ukraine, in particular about the number and range of ammunition. If we provide cluster ammunition to Ukraine, I do not see problems here now as both sides use such ammunition in fighting on the territory of Ukraine ,” said Hanno Pevkur, Estonian Defense Minister in an interview to ERR.
The Estonian Defense Forces have been armed with German-made cluster ammunition since the 1990s. Germany, on whose consent the possibility of supplying cluster munitions from Estonia to Ukraine now depends, has itself refused the production and use of such shells.
Cluster ammunition is considered particularly dangerous for civilians due to the fact that its undetonated elements effectively become landmines and can kill or cripple people at any time. Ukraine, russia, and Estonia are among a relatively small group of non-signatory states to the Convention on Cluster Munitions that has been in force for almost 15 years. The USA, China and Israel are also non-signatory states to it.