US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, has confirmed that the Biden administration will allow Ukraine to use American-supplied antipersonnel land mines to help fight off Russian forces.
In what has been seen as another policy reversal on weapons provided to Kyiv by the outgoing United States administration, US President Joe Biden was reported as having approved providing antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine
According to a U.S official, the US expects Ukraine to use the land mines in its own territory, though it has committed not to use them in areas populated with civilians.
The official added that the US land mines to be provided to Ukraine are “non-persistent,” meaning they require a battery to detonate and will not explode once the battery runs out after a preset period of time.
The provision of US land mines comes on the heels of Ukraine’s use of US-provided ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles to strike targets inside Russian territory for the first time, following newly-granted permission from Biden that advanced US weaponry could be used offensively against targets in Russia.
Speaking to reporters on during a trip to Laos, Austin said that Russian ground troops are leading the movement on the battlefield, rather than forces more protected in armoured carriers, so Ukraine has “a need for things that can help slow down that effort on the part of the Russians.”
“The land mines that we would look to provide them would be land mines that are not persistent, you know, we can control when they would self-activate, self-detonate and that makes it, you know, far more, safer eventually than the things that they are creating on their own.”
Lloyd Austin
The US is a non-signatory to a 1997 convention banning those mines, but Biden had pledged to limit their use.
Kyiv-based hybrid Warfare Expert, Solomiya Khoma welcomed US President Joe Biden’s decision to authorise the use of antipersonnel landmines in Ukraine – but stressed more was needed for Kyiv’s forces to gain any strategic advantages over Moscow’s troops.
Khoma, who is head of international cooperation at the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, told a news agency, “This help is actually not enough to give Ukraine a stronger position in case of, for example, future negotiations with Russia.”
“What Ukraine needs is of course what we’re talking for a long time – to give permission and all the means to strike deep inside Russian territories to target military objects.”
Solomiya Khoma
Khoma argued that such attacks would disrupt Russian logistical chains and “strategically would give Ukraine more capabilities and more advantages to stop Russia on the front line.”
Campaign Group Slams US Decision To Provide Anti-Personnel Landmines To Ukraine
Meanwhile, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines opposed and condemned the United States decision to provide anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine to be used against Russian forces.
The group reported that Ukraine is receiving funds to remove landmines on the one hand, while receiving landmines from the US to be used in the war on the other.
Alma Taslidzan, the group’s Board President, said that “nothing” about landmines makes sense.
“Any country that uses landmines on their own territory is putting their civilian population in extreme danger.
“This is not an immediate threat. This is a long-term threat that will impact the civilians of Ukraine for years and decades afterward. We’ve seen that in many countries around the world – Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia – all these countries have contamination maybe 30 years old and they’re still struggling with that.”
Alma Taslidzan
Taslidzan added, “The funding is right now channeled to Ukraine, that is true, but we’re not sure how this funding will continue to be channeled.”
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