WSJ: South Korea sends hundreds of thousands of shells to Ukraine

South Korea has sent hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine via the United States after Seoul's long resistance to arms deliveries.

US officials said the move would make Kyiv’s planned offensive against Russian forces effective and allow the White House to delay a fraught decision about whether to supply cluster munitions banned by many countries, Caliber.Az reports, citing the Wall Street Journal.

The decision marks a turnabout by Seoul, which had pledged the artillery in November but then balked at providing lethal assistance, following months of US pleas for help as the Pentagon’s own supply of artillery dwindles.  

South Korea’s contribution of rounds has enabled the Biden administration to delay for now a decision on whether to send cluster munitions - the “dual-purpose improved conventional munition” in Pentagon parlance - to the Ukrainians.

“Cluster munitions would provide a missing piece for the Ukrainian counteroffensive to complement their precision medium-range missiles, tanks and troops,” said Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, an independent Washington research organization.

“But for those in the administration unready to make that leap, unitary 155 shells would meet some of the same requirements,” he added.