Turkey walks a fine line as it seeks U.S. nod to arm Ukraine with cluster munitions

Turkey is seeking U.S. approval to retransfer a large package of American-origin cluster munitions, ATACMS missiles and M270 launchers from its stockpiles to Ukraine, a move that would mark a notable shift in Ankara’s long-standing balancing act between Moscow and Kyiv. The proposed deal, containing more than 10 million explosive submunitions, has prompted Human Rights Watch to urge Congress to block it over civilian risks and drawn a sharp demand for explanations from Russia, which warns of serious damage to its relations with both Washington and Ankara.

Türkiye has requested permission from the US to “retransfer” to Ukraine tens of thousands of cluster munition rockets, missiles, and artillery projectiles that have been in Türkiye’s stockpiles for decades.
These types of cluster munitions are notorious for their record of not…
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) August 12, 2026

The United States State Department notified Congress on 3 August that it is prepared to authorize the retransfer. The package includes 12 M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System launchers, 70 M39 ATACMS ballistic missiles, 2,524 M26 rockets and 47,000 M509A1 203mm artillery projectiles. Calculations based on the official quantities put the total number of individual submunitions at 10,151,956. The combined original acquisition value listed in the notifications is approximately $283.9 million; this figure is not a disclosed sale price, and commercial terms remain private.

Turkey requires Washington’s consent because the systems are U.S.-origin defence articles. Official language in the notifications states that Ankara wants to reduce older inventory to free resources for modernization, while Ukraine seeks the weapons to bolster fire support against Russia’s invasion. The congressional review period runs for 30 calendar days, after which transfer could proceed if no joint resolution of disapproval is passed. Final authorization has not yet been publicly confirmed.

Civilian risks and legal backdrop

Human Rights Watch has highlighted that many of the munitions are decades old – produced in part under a 1987 U.S.-Turkey co-production arrangement – and that older cluster munitions carry high rates of unexploded ordnance that can endanger civilians long after fighting ends. The M509A1 projectiles, which account for the bulk of the submunitions, were retired from U.S. service in 1994. Neither the United States, Turkey nor Ukraine is a party to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Bulgaria, home to one of the listed intermediary companies, is a state party, creating a potential compliance question whose details remain unclear in the public record.

Russia’s reaction and the mediation dilemma

On 15 August Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Moscow has formally asked Washington and Ankara for explanations. She described the package as a “substantial arsenal” of offensive systems and warned that the transfer would cause “serious harm to our bilateral relations with Washington and Ankara.” Zakharova also pointed to previous Turkish statements emphasizing that Ankara avoids supplying lethal weapons to Kyiv, arguing that combining mediation rhetoric with arms transfers undermines trust.

For years Turkey has cultivated a dual role: supplying Ukraine with Bayraktar drones early in the conflict, facilitating the Black Sea grain deal, and hosting talks, while simultaneously maintaining significant economic and energy ties with Russia and presenting itself as a neutral mediator. The current proposal – transferring large quantities of U.S.-origin long-range missiles and area-effect cluster munitions – would represent a more overt step away from that carefully managed neutrality. Whether this reflects a calculated recalibration of Turkish policy, an opportunistic effort to clear aging stocks, or both remains open to interpretation; the public record does not yet clarify Ankara’s full strategic calculus.

Neither Turkey’s Foreign Ministry nor its Ministry of National Defence had issued a public response to Russia’s demand as of mid-August. Intermediaries named in the U.S. notifications include Turkish entities MKE, ASFAT and ARCA Savunma, Bulgaria’s VTIC International, and US firms Pansophico and Patriot Defence Group.

The congressional clock is running. If the transfer proceeds, it would give Ukraine additional firepower drawn from existing third-country stocks rather than new U.S. production lines. At the same time, it would test the resilience of Turkey’s relationship with Russia and the credibility of its mediator posture – precisely the fine line Ankara has walked since the full-scale invasion began.

Articles on the same topic by EUalive’s partner Bosphorus News can be found here and here.

Caption: At the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 4 April 2026 [Website of the President of Ukraine]