“Biden approves antipersonnel mines for Ukraine, undoing his own policy”

President Joe Biden has authorized the provision of antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine, a step that will bolster Kyiv’s defenses against advancing Russian troops but has drawn criticism from arms control groups. The move comes in the wake of the White House’s recent authorization allowing Ukraine to use a powerful missile system to strike inside Russia — part of a sweep of urgentactions that the lame-duck Biden administrationis taking to help Kyiv’s faltering war effort.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow will retaliate for the latest missile strikes from the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, which has a range of about 190 miles. Shipping antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine is also potentially controversial, though among a different group: More than 160 countries have signed an international treaty banning their use, noting that the indiscriminate weapons can cause enduring harm to civilians. But Kyiv has sought them since Russia invaded nearly three years ago, and the Kremlin’s forces have deployed antipersonnel land mines liberally on the front lines, impeding Ukraine’s progress as it seeks to reclaim its own territory.

The Biden administration is deeply concerned about Russia’s assaultsagainst Ukraine’s front lines in recent weeks and sees a pressing need to blunt the advance, U.S. officials said. “They have a need for things that can help slow down that effort on the part of the of the Russians,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Wednesday during a visit to Laos. Ukrainian forces are fabricating their own mines, he said, and the U.S. mines being provided “would self-activate, self-detonate and that makes it…far more safer eventually than the things that they are creating on their own.”

Austin and other U.S. officials did not say what type of mines are being provided. One official described them as “nonpersistent,” meaning that the mines self-destruct or lose battery charge to render them inactive within days or weeks. The official said that Ukrainian policymakers had committed to not deploying the mines in densely populated areas. Arms control experts said that even nonpersistent mines pose a safety hazard. The official and three others spoke about the decision on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss sensitive internal White House deliberations. “Russia is attacking Ukrainian lines in the east with waves of troops, regardless of the casualties that they’re suffering,” one of the officials said. “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. When they’re used in concert with the other munitions that we already are providing Ukraine, the intent is that they will contribute to a more effective defense,” the official said.

Biden had been reluctant to supply Ukraine with the mines in the face of concerns within his own administration and from a wide range of anti-mine advocates who say the risk to civilians is unacceptably high. But Russia’s battlefield progress in recent months has forced the White House to findfresh ways to help Kyiv, especially following the victory of President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to steer the conflict toward a swift conclusion. The United States has provided Ukraine with Claymores, a different type of antipersonnel mine, which are set above ground and triggered by an operator, making them permissible under mine ban conventions if used properly.

Use of the new mines would be limited to Ukrainian territory, with an expected focus on eastern Ukraine, one of the officials said. Russian forces have made significant advances in the Donetsk region and in recent months have gained territory at the fastest rate since 2022. Ukrainian troops have struggled to build strong defensive lines in the face of relentless drone sorties and small assault teams. Land mines could help them shore up their defenses by slowing enemy troops and channeling them to areas where they can be targeted with artillery and rockets.

Neither Russia nor the United States is one of the 164 parties to the Ottawa Convention, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty, that prohibits the deployment and transfer of antipersonnel land mines. Biden in 2022 revived an Obama-era policy that banned the transfer and use of U.S. antipersonnel land mines outside the Korean Peninsula.

One Ukrainian official welcomed any policy change despite the potential risks that would come with widespread deployment of the weapons. “Russia uses them anyway,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity.

But some human rights campaigners said that the U.S. decision to provide antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine — a signatory to the Mine Ban Treaty — is a black mark against Washington. “It’s a shocking and devastating development,” said Mary Wareham, deputy director of the crisis, conflict and arms divisionat Human Rights Watch, the advocacy group, who said that even nonpersistent mines hold risks for civilians, requirecomplicated cleanup efforts and are not always reliably deactivated.

The Trump administration in 2020 had reversed the Obama-era policy, pointing to the need for strategic use of mines to counter adversaries like Russia and China, and drawing strong condemnation from arms control advocates.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/11/19/biden-landmines-ukraine-russia

Comment: I know about the toe poppers, bouncing Bettys and the ever present claymores. They were always an accepted part of the modern battlefield. But I’m not at all familiar with these battery-powered non-persistent antipersonnel mines. Damned good idea, though. I wonder if this will include artillery scatterable antipersonnel mines. I thought I remember those mines were electrically fused and, therefore, non-persistent.

As Russian assault tactics changed, Ukrainian defensive tactics must change. This is a good step in that direction. Too bad Ukrainian organization and command style can’t change that easily. I recently read a disconcerting, but accurate line that a small soviet army cannot defeat a large soviet army. Our efforts have had success in training tactical units in the Western way of war, but much less success in breaking old habits among the senior Ukrainian officers.

TTG