This undated photograph shows Russia's State Duma building in Moscow. (STATE DUMA VIA XINHUA)

MOSCOW/KYIV – Russia has condemned the US decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine as a path to genocide and a threat to world peace, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on Friday.

The US decision was a direct path to genocide and it, together with its European partners, would face justice in the future, Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, was quoted as saying.

READ: Biden, Zelensky discuss US support for Ukraine over phone

"Russia will respond adequately to this, and our military units are informed about the possible use of cluster munitions by the enemy," said Slutsky.

Now because of the US, there will be a risk for many years that innocent people will be blown up by unexploded submunitions.

Anatoly Antonov, Russian envoy to US

The United States announced on Friday the decision to transfer to Ukraine cluster munitions, which are banned by an international convention ratified by 123 countries.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which came into force in 2010, prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions. The US and Ukraine are not signatories to the convention.

The cluster munitions that Washington will send to Ukraine are fired from 155 mm howitzers, with each canister carrying 88 bomblets. Each bomblet has a lethal range of about 10 square meters, so a single canister can cover an area up to 30,000 square meters, said a CNN report.

The munitions can scatter "bomblets" across large areas that can fail to explode on impact and can pose a long-term risk to anyone who encounters them, similar to landmines, it said.

READ MORE: EU boosts military funding to Ukraine

"Now because of the US, there will be a risk for many years that innocent people will be blown up by unexploded submunitions," said Anatoly Antonov, Russian ambassador to Washington.

‘Summit to bring Ukraine closer to NATO’

Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that the NATO summit in Vilnius will bring Ukraine closer to the alliance, the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency reported.

"I expect that our leaders will once again confirm that Ukraine will become a member of NATO and agree on how to bring Ukraine closer to achieving its goal," Stoltenberg said.

The NATO chief voiced his belief that at the summit, which is slated for July 11-12 in Lithuania, the allies will agree on a package with three elements for Ukraine.

ALSO READ: NATO to adopt 3 defense plans at Vilnius summit, says Stoltenberg

The package will include providing a multi-year program of assistance for Ukraine, upgrading political ties through the establishment of the NATO-Ukraine Council, and reaffirming that Ukraine will become a NATO member, he said.

NATO recognized Ukraine as its Enhanced Opportunities Partner in 2020.