President Biden has reportedly given the Pentagon the green light to ship antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine — a policy the commander-in-chief once called “reckless.”
US officials said the policy shift on landmines – which comes days after the Biden-Harris administration allowed Ukraine to use US-made long-range missiles to strike Russia's Kursk region – is necessary to thwart recent Russian advances against the Ukrainian front lines. According to the Washington Post.
“Russia is attacking the Ukrainian lines in the east with waves of troops, regardless of the losses they suffer,” one official said.
“So it is clear that the Ukrainians are suffering losses, and more towns and cities are at risk of falling. These mines were specially made to combat precisely this.
One official noted that the anti-personnel mines that would be deployed would be “non-permanent,” in other words, capable of self-destructing or running out of battery charge, making them theoretically less of a long-term risk to civilians.
The official added that Ukraine pledged not to deploy mines in densely populated areas.
In June 2022 – just four months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine – Biden, 81, reversed a Trump-era policy that allowed the US military to produce and deploy anti-personnel landmines anywhere in the world.
“President Biden is committed to continuing the United States’ role as a global leader in mitigating the harmful consequences of antipersonnel landmines around the world,” Adrienne Watson, White House National Security Council director, said in a statement at the time.
Watson cited the “devastating impact of anti-personnel landmines” in Russia's war against Ukraine – noting that the defensive weapon would only be equipped for use on the Korean Peninsula.
In 2020, Biden criticized then-President Donald Trump for supporting the strategic use of landmines to confront US adversaries, such as Russia and China.
“The Trump administration’s reversal of years of thoughtful decisions made by Democratic and Republican presidents to limit the use of land mines is another reckless act,” Biden said on his 2020 campaign.
He added: “It will put more civilians at risk of injury due to unexploded mines, and is unnecessary from a military perspective.”
As president, Biden previously blocked Ukraine from using US-supplied ATACMS missiles to strike targets inside Russian territory before eventually reversing course.
US officials said the use of land mines would be limited to Ukrainian territory, and is expected to mainly strengthen defenses in the eastern parts of the country where Russian forces have made significant advances in recent months.
The White House did not immediately respond to the newspaper's request for comment.
