Pentagon calls on White House to supply white phosphorus shells to Ukraine
The Pentagon has called on the White House to deliver white phosphorus shells to Ukraine.
Senior Pentagon officials have recommended that the U.S. provide Ukraine with white phosphorus munitions for use on the battlefield, but the White House has rejected the idea several times, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the planning, News.Az reports, citing NBC News .The Pentagon recommended providing the white phosphorus shells to Ukraine as part of several aid packages, including a recent one, as a Presidential Drawdown Authority, according to the officials. If eventually approved, the PDA announcement would not likely list the chemical, the officials said, as has been done with previous weapons and munitions that the U.S. has sent to Ukraine but not publicly announced.
Two of the officials said the stigma around white phosphorus and concerns that it could affect civilians has kept Biden administration officials from approving the recommendation.
The Pentagon and the White House National Security Council did not respond to requests for comment.
White phosphorus is used for military purposes in aerial bombs, aviation cluster ammunition, artillery shells and mines. Incendiary weapons are considered to be conventional but Protocol 3 of the 1980 UN Convention on Inhuman Weapons bans their use against civilians and civilian facilities, as well as in strikes on military targets in civilian areas. Human rights organizations have long been calling for designating white phosphorus munitions as chemical weapons.
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