Requiem posted... Here's the issue with the cluster bombs being used for defense:
1) Public perception / potential loss of public support from nations the Ukraine is receiving aid
2) Dealing with the aftermath decades after
Now, obviously the US government, Ukraine government, military analyst, public poll analysts, etc etc all got together and decided that it was worth the costs described above. And no one here have all the information / analysis that the governments did when the decision was made.
The US and Ukraine aren't doing this because "hey, we need a summer movie event", and the people making the decision probably are the people least happy with the necessity (the US officials for the international rep hit, Ukraine officials because they need to live with the consequence decades into the future).
So, I'm sure there was a very good and urgent need for the weapon use.
Pretty shocked that such need existed, but no one here (or in various media / npo) has the information that the governments do.
The land is already heavily mined. The artillery is literally being fired into what is essentially a No Mans Land.
This is like being worried youll knock up your girlfriend after shes already pregnant.
And again; theyll run out of artillery and get destroyed otherwise.