Biden agrees to supply Ukraine with anti-personnel mines

The Biden administration has approved supplying Ukraine with American anti-personnel mines to bolster defenses against Russian attacks as Ukrainian front lines in the country’s east have buckled, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday.

The decision is the latest in a series of moves by Russia and the United States related to the war in Ukraine that have escalated tensions between the two.

The White House recently granted permission to Ukraine to fire longer-range American missiles at targets in Russia, which the Ukrainians did for the first time Tuesday. Moscow in response formalized a new doctrine lowering the threshold for when it would use nuclear weapons.

Austin said the U.S. decision was prompted by Russia’s increasing reliance on foot soldiers to lead their assaults, instead of armored vehicles. Austin said the shift in policy follows changing tactics by the Russians. Because of that, Ukraine has “a need for things that can help slow down that effort on the part of the Russians,” Austin said.

Mines in general have been devastatingly effective in the war in Ukraine, and Russia has made extensive use of them. The mines are planted by hand but can also be scattered remotely with rockets or drones behind opponents’ lines, to catch soldiers as they move to and from positions, a tactic that can assist an offensive.

Land mines, however, have been most effective in defense. A broad belt of dense minefields in southern Ukraine stymied a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer of 2023 and gravely wounded a large but undisclosed number of Ukrainian soldiers.

The Biden administration’s decision came despite widespread condemnation of mines by rights groups that cite their toll on civilians, which can stretch for years or decades after conflicts end. Ukraine is already the most heavily mined country in the world, according to the United Nations.

Most countries, but not the United States and Russia, are signatories of a convention banning the use or stockpiling of land mines, the 1997 Ottawa Treaty. Ukraine is a signatory to the agreement.

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense did not respond to a query on the decision to transfer American land mines to Ukraine.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.