President Joe Biden has reportedly given the Pentagon green light to send antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine, a decision he previously criticized as “reckless.” According to U.S. officials, the change in policy is aimed at countering recent Russian advances on Ukrainian front lines, as reported by the Washington Post.
The major change in the policy was announced shortly after the Biden-Harris administration allowed Ukraine to deploy American-made long-range missiles targeting Russia’s Kursk region. The recent decision by the United States is a sharp U-turn by Biden. “Russia is attacking Ukrainian lines in the east with waves of troops, regardless of the casualties that they’re suffering,” one official told the outlet.
Biden Makes U-Turn
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“So the Ukrainians are obviously taking losses, and more towns and cities are at risk of falling. These mines were made specifically to combat exactly this,” the official added.
An official said that the antipersonnel mines being sent would be “nonpersistent,” meaning they are designed to self-destruct or lose functionality when their battery depletes, potentially reducing long-term risks to civilians.
The official also mentioned that Ukraine has promised not to use the mines in heavily populated areas.
In June 2022, only four months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Biden, 81, reversed a Trump-era policy that allowed the U.S. military to manufacture and deploy antipersonnel land mines globally.
“President Biden is committed to continuing the United States’ role as the world’s leader in mitigating the harmful consequences of anti-personnel landmines worldwide,” White House National Security Council Adrienne Watson said in a statement at the time.
Watson highlighted the “devastating impact of antipersonnel landmines” in Russia’s war on Ukraine, emphasizing that this defensive weapon would be supplied solely for use on the Korean Peninsula.
Biden’s All-New Strategy
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In 2020, Biden condemned then-President Donald Trump for supporting the tactical use of land mines as a measure against U.S. rivals like Russia and China. “The Trump administration’s reversal of years of considered decisions by Democratic and Republican presidents to curtail the use of landmines is another reckless act,” Biden said on the 2020 campaign trail.
“It will put more civilians at risk of being injured by unexploded mines, and is unnecessary from a military perspective,” he argued.
During his presidency, Biden initially prohibited Ukraine from using U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles to strike targets within Russian borders but later changed his stance.
According to U.S. officials, the land mines will be restricted to use within Ukraine and are intended to strengthen defenses, particularly in the eastern regions where Russian forces have recently gained significant ground.
