According to Cluster Munition Monitor 2022, the list of 16 countries that refuse to sign the convention and produce cluster munitions included Brazil, China, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Israel, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, the United States and Turkey.
Ukraine is also not a signatory but doesnt make them
For context these countries both make them and don’t ban them and both Ukraine and Russia have used them already in this war, Ukraine was probably just running out of their Soviet era stock of them that they inherited from the dissolution
And obviously all landmine and landmine adjacent weapons are indiscriminate and kill decades after they were placed, one of the most evil weapons out there
And obviously all landmine and landmine adjacent weapons are indiscriminate and kill decades after they were placed, one of the most evil weapons out there
I’ve heard that some of the western front from WW1 is still uninhabitable. Ukraine is honestly the true loser of this war, regardless of Nato or Russia’s victory
Apparently there are some seriously, seriously contaminated areas in france where the concentrations of unexploded WWI ordnance are so dense, and the explosive compounds are so unstable after a century of degradation, that there’s just a big “Fuck off this place’ll kill ya!” barrier around the area.
Not just apparently, it’s called “Zone Rouge” and it’s not just the explosives that are a danger, but all the heavy metals like lead and mercury and poisons from gases that make both agriculture and habitation untenable. The zone has obviously shrunk since 1917, it having been over 100 years and all, but it’s still exists in the areas of the most intense fighting.
