4/9 These weren’t dumb rockets. The Iskander-M system has a CEP of just 5–7 meters. You don’t “accidentally” hit a trolleybus full of civilians. This was targeted mass murder using precision-guided weapons. #Iskander #ClusterBombs #PutinWarCrimes

#Banks and financial institutions profiting from #weapons

By Clare Carlile
Friday 7th of April 2023

High street banks are funding some of the world’s most notorious #ArmsCompanies. We look at which banks are involved and what consumers can do. We also look at the wider financial industry and its links with #NuclearWeapons in particular.

How are banks financing the arms industry?

"Banks are behind almost every industry in the world, through their loans, insurance and other kinds of financing, including the arms industry.

"By funding arms companies, banks allow them to grow and innovate – developing new forms of #lethal weapons.

"In fact, banks are behind companies involved in the very worst forms of arms, such as nuclear weapons and #ClusterMunitions, despite the latter being banned by 120 countries.

"Unsurprisingly, arms companies are not generally picky about who they sell weapons to. This means that if a bank is funding an arms company, it may well be one that is selling to oppressive regimes.

Which banks are involved in financing arms companies?

"Unfortunately, many banks still finance arms companies.

"While some have said they will not fund the most destructive weapons, lots fall far short of refusing funding to arms companies altogether. And it is not just banks that are involved in the global arms trade. Lots of other financial institutions, such as investors, are also involved.

"Over three quarters of the brands included in our ethical current accounts guide lost half a mark under Arms & Military supply for their investments. This included all the five major high street banks: #Barclays, #HSBC, #Lloyds, #NatWest and #Santander.

"Banks such as Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander and #Citigroup, and other financial institutions such as #Aviva and #OldMutual have been named in relation to funding cluster munitions, nuclear weapons on the sale of arms to #Yemen.

What weapons are banks funding?
Banks funding cluster munitions

“Cluster munitions are indiscriminate weapons that pose a serious threat to civilian populations during and long after an attack. They spread dozens, or even hundreds, of bomblets called submunitions over an area the size of a football stadium or even more. On impact cluster munitions kill or maim anyone that is in that area. Also, many submunitions fail to explode on impact: they remain on the ground like landmines that kill and injure civilians long after the conflict has ended.'

"120 countries have signed a Convention that that bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of #ClusterBombs.

"Yet, in 2018, the Cluster Munition Coalition found that financial institutions had invested almost $9 billion in companies producing cluster munitions. Citigroup and Old Mutual were both found to invest in companies involved.

"Amongst the banks named in the report, Triodos, Co-operative Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland were all praised for having divestment policies in place.

"However, Aviva, Axa, Deutsche Bank, Edentree Investment Management, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered were all found to have incomplete policies in place."

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/money-finance/banks-weapons

#WarIsBigBusiness #NoWar #WeaponsManufacturers #NoNuclearWeapons

More than 1,000 people have been killed or wounded by cluster munitions in Ukraine since Russia launched its war, the most in the world. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/09/10/world/cluster-bombs-ukraine-since-2022/ #worldnews #clusterbombs #ukraine #russia #russiaukrainewar

> Between May 1964 and the summer of 1969, the Plain of Jars was.. bombed by the United States Air Force.. against #NorthVietnamese and #PathetLao.. during the #SecretWar.. includ[ing] 262 million anti-personnel #ClusterBombs..estimated 80 million of these did not explode.. a deadly threat to the population.
> .. unexploded bombs in the area, especially cluster munitions, limits.. movement. Evidence of the bombing raids can be seen in the form of broken or displaced jars and bomb craters...

Lithuanian MPs vote to quit convention on cluster munitions https://www.euractiv.com/section/defence-and-security/news/lithuanian-mps-vote-to-quit-convention-on-cluster-munitions/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #clusterbombs #Lithuania #Russia #Russianinvasion

Hackers are now using 'malware cluster bombs' in their attacks — how to stay safe
New attack method can infect your computer with up to 10 viruses at once
https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/malware-adware/hackers-are-now-using-malware-cluster-bombs-in-their-attacks-how-to-stay-safe #cybersecurity #malware #clusterbombs #US

Zelenskyy sees ‘clear signs’ of slowdown in Russian defence industry https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/zelenskyy-sees-clear-signs-of-slowdown-in-russian-defence-industry/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #clusterbombs #drones #Russianinvasion #Ukraine #VolodymyrZelenskyy

Russia's now using their mods
In Ukraine to kill off the gods
Their new types of bombs
Increased their forces strong
As Kyiv hopes their luck won't run out of odds

#russia #ukraine #clusterbombs #war #limerick #poetry

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-cluster-bombs-glide-rbk500-ukraine-donetsk-1845217

My message just sent to my Representative in Congress, Marc Molinaro:

>The use and export of cluster munitions are war crimes. Your vote against the Gaetz amendment to ban the export of cluster munitions makes you complicit in these crimes. Due to your action, non-combatants, most of them children, will be killed and maimed for decades to come.

#WarCrimes #US #ClusterBombs #MarcMolinaro

269 villains in the US House of Representatives, 137 Democratic and 132 Republican, defeated the Gaetz amendment to ban the transfer of cluster munitions to another country.

https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2023439

#WarCriminals #US #ClusterBombs

Putin signals he expects long war in Ukraine, is not betting on Trump https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/putin-signals-he-expects-long-war-in-ukraine-is-not-betting-on-trump/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #ATACMS #clusterbombs #DonaldTrump #KimJongUn #NorthKorea

Ukraine could get long-range missiles armed with US cluster bombs https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/ukraine-could-get-long-range-missiles-armed-with-us-cluster-bombs/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #ATACMS #clusterbombs #militaryescalation #Russianinvasion

The Putinistas will be shrilling about Ukraine having the same weapons that the Russians have already used against them, despite the Ukrainian forces using said weapons on their own territory to remove the Terror Orcs.

#UkraineDefence #DepletedUraniumShells #Clusterbombs

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-depleted-uranium-munitions-uk-military-aid-tank-armor-1790756

The UK fighting Russia to the last Ukranian... maybe the last living human  given  fueled heat of tanks and jets, and a nuclear war could kill us before climate chaos...

> ... this has really been Britain’s role throughout this war, has been to kind of up the ante and to lead the way on weapon supplies to Ukraine, despite the kind of escalatory fears....
  https://www.democracynow.org/2023/9/6/biden_depleted_uranium_shells_to_ukraine

#TheUK #Ukraine #Russia #DU #DepleteUranium #ClusterBombs

@marywareham for @humanrightswatch on German news channel @tagesschau on the topic of #clusterbombs / #ClusterMunitionMonitor2023:
https://youtu.be/pE0H5iP0hlc?t=411

Addendum 7

More than 300 people killed by cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022
Cluster munition deaths also seen in Syria, Yemen, Iran despite active fighting stopping or slowing
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-cluster-munitions-2022-report-1.6956778

* >300 killed, >600 wounded by cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022
* long-term danger to civilians

Cluster munition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_munition

Cluster Munition Monitor 2023
http://www.the-monitor.org/media/3383234/Cluster-Munition-Monitor-2023_Web.pdf

#ClusterMunitions #ClusterBombs #ClusterMunitionCoalition #WarInUkraine #WarCrimes #warfare

The #US provided #Ukraine with #clusterbombs to fight #Russia.
Now #Laotian survivors of US cluster munition use during the Indochina airwar say they should never be used.
'War victims' still being harvested by US made cluster sub-munition remnants in Laos today, 50 years after that war ended, and US is on friendly terms with its then enemy - #Vietnam.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-war-us-cluster-bombs-1.6940961

"9 civili uccisi e una decina feriti in un attacco russo a un quartiere residenziale della città #Lyman, apparentemente con munizioni a grappolo, in un possibile crimine di guerra."

#WarCrimes #Ukraina #Russia #ClusterBombs #PACE #Peace #NOwar #4agosto

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/04/ukraine-apparent-russian-cluster-munition-attack

@newlinesmag latest episode of their #podcast The Lede.

#ClusterBombs & Ukraine w/ Danny Postel (who alas isn't on Mastodon)

"Romeo Kokriatski, a journalist and managing editor of the New Voice of Ukraine, [said] Kyiv can’t afford to be picky.

“These aren't weapons that Ukraine wants or that we would have chosen, but we were not given the things that we asked for,” he says. “We simply took them because they were offered to us.”
https://newlinesmag.com/podcast/ukraines-cluster-bomb-dilemma-with-sera-koulabdara-and-romeo-kokriatski/