Biden: US will allow Ukraine to use US anti-personnel mines against Russian troops

Kyiv, Ukraine — The Biden administration announced Wednesday it will provide Ukraine with antipersonnel mines to help it slow Russia’s advance on the battlefield, marking the second major shift in U.S. military support for Kyiv in recent days.

In allowing Ukraine to use longer-range U.S. missiles to strike deep into Russia, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said a change in Washington’s policy on landmines for Ukraine was necessary to counter changing Russian tactics.

” READ MORE: Russia says Ukraine fired six US-made ATACMS missiles into the Bryansk region, days after President Biden’s policy change

The war, which reached its 1,000-day mark on Tuesday, is largely in Russia’s favor. Moscow’s larger army is slowly pushing back Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk region, while Ukrainian civilians are maimed and killed by Russian drones and missiles often launched from Russian territory.

Individual ground troops, rather than forces more protected by armored personnel carriers, are leading Russia’s advance on the battlefield, so Ukraine “needs things that can help slow down those efforts,” Austin said during a trip to Laos.

The announcement comes two months before Donald Trump takes over from Joe Biden in the White House. Trump has vowed to quickly end the war and criticized the amount the US has spent supporting Ukraine.

Biden administration officials say they are committed to helping Ukraine as much as possible before he leaves office, and on Wednesday they announced that the United States intends to write off half the debt — about $4.6 billion — that Ukraine owes the country. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said U.S. lawmakers were briefed on the move this week and that he does not expect them to pass a resolution of disapproval to try to stop loan forgiveness due to bipartisan support for Ukraine in the current Congress.

” READ MORE: Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for Russia to use its nuclear arsenal after President Biden’s decision to arm Ukraine

Steps taken to help Ukraine, as well as unconfirmed reports on Wednesday that Ukraine fired a British cruise missile at Russia for the first time, are likely to irritate Moscow.

The US and several other Western embassies in Kyiv closed temporarily on Wednesday in response to the threat of a potentially major Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital.

Humanitarian organizations have long criticized the use of anti-personnel mines as they pose a long-term threat to civilians. Amnesty International called the US decision “reckless” and a “deeply disappointing failure”. And Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Bart Eide called this “very problematic”, since Ukraine is a party to the international convention against the use of landmines.

Austin noted that Ukraine already produces its own anti-personnel mines and that the United States is supplying Ukraine with anti-tank mines. He also tried to allay concerns about the new mines the US is giving Kyiv, saying they are not durable, meaning troops can control the situation when they self-detonate.

“Ultimately, this makes it much safer than something they create on their own,” Austin said.

” READ MORE: Moscow warns US against allowing Ukraine to strike Russian soil with long-range weapons

The mines are electrically fused and battery powered, so when the battery runs out they won’t explode. They can become inert in anywhere from four hours to two weeks.

Russia already uses landmines in Ukraine, but they do not become inert over time.

The United States also sought commitments from the Ukrainians to use mines to limit harm to innocent civilians, according to the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. Ukraine will use mines in its own country and will not install them in populated areas.

The mines are included in a new $275 million military aid package announced by the Biden administration on Wednesday. The package also includes High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, Javelin anti-tank ammunition and other equipment and spare parts.

The war took on a growing international dimension with the arrival of North Korean troops to assist Russia on the battlefield. The development prompted Biden to change policy by allowing Ukraine to fire longer-range U.S. missiles at Russia, U.S. officials said, and it angered the Kremlin. .

Britain has been quietly pressuring the US to ease restrictions on the use of Western-supplied missiles, and unconfirmed news reports on Wednesday said Ukraine had fired British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles at Russia for the first time. British and Ukrainian officials have not confirmed this information.

Meanwhile, representatives of the French army and the presidential administration refused to say whether Ukraine was using French long-range SCALP missiles to strike targets in Russia, citing France’s military secrecy policy. French President Emmanuel Macron has been pushing for such a move for months.

After the Biden administration allowed Ukraine to attack Russia with longer-range, US-made ATACMS missiles, Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for using his nuclear arsenal, and a new doctrine announced Tuesday allows for a potential nuclear response from Moscow even to a conventional attack. against Russia by any country supported by a nuclear power.

This could potentially include US-backed Ukrainian attacks.

The American diplomatic mission in Kyiv said Wednesday it received warning of a potentially serious Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital and closed the embassy for several hours before reopening. The embassies of Spain, Italy and Greece also closed, but the British and French governments said their embassies remained open.

Western leaders have described Russia’s reaction to the US missile decision as an attempt to deter Ukraine’s allies from providing further support to Kyiv, but escalating tensions weighed on stock markets after Ukraine fired ATACMS missiles at a target inside Russia for the first time.

Western and Ukrainian officials say Russia is stockpiling powerful, long-range missiles, possibly in an upcoming attempt to destroy Ukraine’s power grid as winter approaches.

Defense analysts say the U.S. decision on the range of American-made missiles is not expected to be a game-changer, but it could help weaken Russia’s war effort, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank.

“Ukrainian long-range strikes against military targets behind Russian lines are crucial for the degradation of Russian military capabilities throughout the theater of operations,” the report says.

Meanwhile, according to South Korea, North Korea recently supplied additional artillery systems to Russia. It said North Korean soldiers were assigned to Russian marine and airborne units, and some had already begun fighting alongside the Russians on the front lines.

Ukraine struck a factory in Russia’s Belgorod region that produces cargo drones for the military in an overnight attack, said Andrey Kovalenko, head of the counter-disinformation department of Ukraine’s Security Council.

He also said Ukraine struck an arsenal in Russia’s Novgorod region, near the town of Kotovo, located about 680 kilometers (420 miles) from the Ukrainian border. According to him, the arsenal stores artillery ammunition and various types of missiles.

The claims could not be independently verified.