The Biden administration is considering a plan to send cluster munitions to Ukraine to assist with Kyiv's counteroffensive against Russia, according to two U.S. officials and a person in familiar with the talks.

In recent days, the discussion, which involves sending dual-purpose, improved conventional munitions has been growing while Ukraine's efforts against Russia have stalled, but as of late last year the administration was saying it had concerns about delivering the weapons because of humanitarian reasons and because it was not yet determined whether Ukraine needed them at that time, reports Politico.

However, the sources said the administration's debate about the weapons has grown during Ukraine's difficulties with the counteroffensive, and now, some officials are saying the administration is closer to agreeing on the cluster munitions at any other point since the Russian invasion.

No final decision has been made, let alone a timeline, but one of the U.S. officials, who was granted anonymity to comment, said the administration is "considering providing" the weapons.

The White House did not respond immediately to a request for a comment, and the Pentagon said it did not have anything to announce.

The United States has already provided Ukraine with High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and 155mm Howitzers, which can be used to launch cluster munitions, as part of its $41 billion in security assistance since February 2022, when the war started.

Cluster munitions are used to scatter "bomblets" over a wide area, and the concern about allowing them is that civilians can be killed along with military targets. Further, dud bombs that don't work can explode later, which can hurt civilians and make troop movements more difficult.

The United States is not part of the 100 countries that signed onto the 2010 Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international ban on the use of cluster munitions. Congress, however, has restricted the ability to transfer the weapons, citing the risk to civilians.

President Joe Biden or Secretary of State Antony Blinken, however, can override Congress if the weapons are deemed necessary.

Laura Cooper, the Pentagon's Europe chief, told lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week that the cluster munitions "would be useful, especially against dug-in Russian positions on the battlefield."

Congressional Republicans are in favor of supplying the weapons, but Democrats oppose the plan.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said last week that the cluster munitions "would be incredibly effective against the heavily fortified Russian defensive positions the Ukrainians must now breach."

However, 14 Senate Democrats, also last week wrote in a letter to national security adviser Jake Sullivan that the "humanitarian costs and damage to coalition unity of providing U.S. cluster munitions would outweigh the tactical benefits, and urge the president not to approve such a transfer."

Russia has already used cluster munitions in the war effort and evidence is growing that Ukraine is using them as well, according to a March report by the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine.

"Ukrainian armed forces likely used cluster munitions and rocket-delivered antipersonnel land mines to carry out attacks in Izium city, Kharkiv region, from March to September 2022, when it was controlled by Russian armed forces," the report stated.

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