Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Kiev of using the US-supplied cluster munitions against Moscow vowing reciprocal measure if Ukraine uses them.

In an interview with Russian media, President Putin said on Sunday his country has a sufficient stockpile of various kinds of cluster munitions and may retaliate if Ukraine uses them.

“Russia has a sufficient supply of various types of cluster munitions,” the Russian leader said. “If they are used against us, we reserve the right to mirror actions.”

He said Moscow reserves the right to tit-for-tat actions. Putin also said Russia has not used such weapons despite a certain shortage of munitions at some point.

“Until now, we have not done this, we have not used it, and we have not had such a need,” he said.

Elsewhere in his interview, Putin said that the Biden administration had called the use of cluster munitions a war crime and that he agreed with that assessment.

Ukraine has recently started receiving cluster weapons from the United States.

Washington’s decision was opposed by many countries including the US allies.

The Pentagon said Thursday that cluster munitions provided by the United States had arrived in Ukraine.

Ukraine received the US cluster munitions a week after Washington pledged to supply Kiev with such weapons despite growing international criticism.

The White House earlier this month said that the US would indeed supply cluster bombs to Ukraine to help its counteroffensive against Russian forces despite a global ban on the use of the controversial munitions. 

Washington’s decision to send cluster bombs to Kyiv was controversial and criticized by human rights groups.

The weapons are particularly dangerous to civilians and noncombatants when fired near populated areas because they scatter explosive material, so-called “bomblets,” across large areas. Those that fail to explode on impact can detonate years later, posing a long-term risk to anyone who encounters them, similar to landmines.

Cluster munitions contain multiple explosives that are released over an area up to the size of several football fields. They can be dropped from a plane or launched from the ground or sea.

The danger posed by cluster weapons has prompted more than 100 countries to sign a treaty prohibiting their use.

It comes amid widespread reports about Ukraine already using these lethal munitions against Russian forces as the war drags on, causing numerous deaths and serious injuries to civilians.

According to a recent media report, the mass-destructive cluster bombs dropped by US military forces in Afghanistan during their 20-year occupation of the country continue to wreak havoc among Afghans with the unexploded bomblets still remaining a major life-threatening risk to local civilians.
 
The report then went on to underscore that US President Joe Biden recently signed off supplying Ukraine with cluster bombs for use against Russians despite knowing about the enormous trauma the mass-destructive weapon had inflicted on the Afghan people.

The US -- despite its purported and hyped-up advocacy for "human rights" -- remains among the countries of the world that have refused to sign the convention banning the use of cluster munitions due to the long-term risk they pose to civilian lives even after a conflict concludes.