President Biden’s decision to arm Ukraine with cluster bombs has sparked rare Democratic criticism of his proxy war with Russia, and some of the US’s top NATO allies have also spoken out against the move. “The decision by the Biden administration to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine is unnecessary and a terrible mistake,” said Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, according to Politico. “The legacy of cluster bombs is misery, death and expensive cleanup generations after their use … These weapons should be eliminated from our stockpiles, not dumped in Ukraine,” she added. Nineteen House progressives issued a joint statement condemning the move. “Cluster munitions have been banned by nearly 125 countries under the United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions because of the indiscriminate harm they cause, including mass civilian injury and death,” the statement said. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) signed on to the statement and criticized President Biden’s decision in an appearance on CNN. “Cluster bombs should never be used. That’s crossing a line,” Lee said. NATO allies Spain, the UK, and Canada, all parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, have warned against providing Ukraine with cluster munitions. A 2008 Defense Department directive signed by former US President George W. Bush instructed the military to remove all but a tiny fraction of its cluster munition arsenal by 2018 until safer versions, with an unexploded ordnance rate of under 1%, could be created. After the Pentagon failed to develop reliable cluster munitions despite investing millions of dollars, then-President Donald Trump rescinded the Bush-era order in 2017.