WASHINGTON — Following a protracted debate over battle tank donations for Ukraine that tested the unity of Kyiv’s allies, cluster munitions appear in position to fire up the next controversy.

That’s at least the plan of one European government, which wants the story out there without appearing in it. An unnamed official from said country told reporters Wednesday a request was sent to Berlin this week to re-export an unnamed number of an unnamed type of 155mm artillery cluster munitions to the war-torn country.

Yes, that’s a lot of unnamed moving parts. And officials from the purported requesting country declined to bring clarity to the matter by revealing which type of munitions they seek to give to Ukraine or how many.

Estonian news portal ERR.ee reported on Thursday that it was leaders in Tallinn who want to give Ukraine cluster munitions, pending Germany’s approval. The article says Estonian has “thousands” of such artillery rounds.

The development is news to the German defense ministry, at least, where a spokesperson told Defense News on Thursday no such request had reached the docket there.

What is known, however, is Ukrainian officials have said they want the weapons to defend against Russian infantry waves storming their positions.

Cluster munitions are banned under a UN treaty for their indiscriminate targeting and the possibility of their unexploded submunitions hurting civilians long after their use.

Russia, which is not a signatory to the treaty, used cluster munitions in attacks against the previously occupied city of Kherson in November, after losing the city to Ukrainian forces again, according to Human Rights Watch. The rounds killed and maimed Ukrainian civilians, the group said.

“Residents of Kherson survived eight months of Russian occupation, and are finally free from fear of torture, only to be subjected to new indiscriminate attacks, apparently including cluster munitions,” Belkis Wille, the group’s associate crisis and conflict director, wrote in a December 2022 article.

Germany is a signatory to the treaty that bans cluster munitions. The United States is not, but military scientists here have come up with novel ways to avoid using them since the treaty entered into force, including by way of purely kinetic, versus explosive, projectiles.

Thomas Wiegold, a military expert and journalist based in Berlin, told Defense News the Bundeswehr has long eliminated its arsenal of cluster munitions, which means the likely focus is on a series of Rheinmetall-made rounds Germany may have exported to allies before the 2010 ban took effect.

News agency AFP first ran a story about the purported push for cluster munitions late Wednesday, citing the European official as arguing the West should be more “forward-leaning” in supporting Ukraine.

“Russians have been using all sorts of weapons that are 100 times more terrible than cluster munitions,” the official said.

The official told reporters earlier any request for Germany to authorize the re-export of old, German-made cluster munitions was expected to be controversial and would result in Berlin facing similar international pressure as it did over Leopard 2 tanks.

Nosatîi said that in the past days a number of Russian missiles were fired from the Black Sea and subsequently flew over Moldova’s territory to strike targets in Ukraine.

“Under normal circumstances, in the event of an airspace violation, air defense forces enter a state of combat and measures are taken to intercept flying targets such as missiles or aircraft that violate a state’s national space,” the minister said, as quoted by local news agency IPN.

Moldova is landlocked, but the country’s southern part lies in proximity of the Ukrainian Black Sea coast.

Nosatîi said that the Moldovan authorities plan to pass legislation that will allow the country’s government to establish multi-year defense acquisition programs. As air defense systems are expensive, Moldova hopes that its Western partners will help purchase the weapons, according to the minister.

The official also stated that, under the country’s agreement with Germany, the Moldovan Armed Forces are to receive new drones and other military gear in the first months of 2023.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised concern amid Moldovan officials that the country, whose constitution requires it to remain a neutral state, could be Moscow’s next target. Russia has long backed Transnistria, a breakaway republic in Moldova’s eastern part, and observers have speculated the Kremlin could use the statelet to facilitate its attacks on Ukraine, or even invade Moldova.

The package includes $7.5 billion in military assistance and another $4.5 billion in economic and humanitarian support, on par with the amounts the White House asked for earlier this month as part of its latest Ukraine supplemental request.

“This bill will keep vital services running for the American people through Dec. 16 and provide critical support for Ukraine while we negotiate a bipartisan, bicameral omnibus appropriations bill,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a statement.

The bill allocates $3 billion of the $7.5 billion in military aid for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the Pentagon to contract for new weapons and equipment for Kyiv, and another $2.8 billion to bolster U.S. forces stationed in the European theater. It also appropriates $1.5 billion in funding to backfill U.S. stockpiles of weapons already sent to Ukraine, an amount that includes $540 million for critical munitions replenishment.

The Pentagon inspector general is also set to receive $2 million in additional funds to oversee this aid.

Notably, the bill also provides the National Nuclear Security Administration with $35 million “to prepare for and respond to potential nuclear and radiological incidents in Ukraine.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week threatened to use nuclear weapons if the country comes under attack. During the same speech, he announced referenda in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, paving the way for potential annexation by Moscow. At the same time, Putin also instated a mass military mobilization.

In addition to the $7.5 billion in military aid appropriations, the bill also authorizes a separate $3.7 billion in presidential drawdown authority, which allows the White House to send additional security aid to Ukraine from existing U.S. stockpiles. President Joe Biden has used his presidential drawdown authority at least 20 times since August 2021 to provide approximately $12.5 billion in U.S. military equipment to Ukraine.

The Senate is scheduled today to begin its first procedural vote on the continuing resolution to fund the government, which includes the latest Ukraine aid supplemental.

Congress in March approved its first $13.6 billion Ukraine supplemental aid package. Lawmakers tripled that funding in May with a $40 billion package of military, economic and food aid for Ukraine and U.S. allies, which the White House says was designed to last through September. This third supplemental package will bring the total amount of aid to Ukraine that Congress has allocated so far this year to more than $65 billion.

While all aid packages for Kyiv have enjoyed robust bipartisan support so far, a rift on Ukraine assistance among Republicans could complicate the passage of future supplemental assistance bills if they take control of Congress in the November midterm elections.

A total of 68 Republicans, 57 in the House and 11 in the Senate, voted against the last Ukraine aid supplemental package. The influential Heritage Action, the lobbying arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, joined several other right-leaning groups in lobbying against both the latest round of Ukraine aid and the $40 billion supplemental Congress passed in May.

The House’s No. 2 and 3 Republican leaders — Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and conference chair Elise Stefanik of New York — wouldn’t commit to their conference keeping the aid flowing should Republicans take control of the House, even though they both cast votes in favor of Ukraine aid in the past.