US to give antipersonnel mines to Ukraine to help slow the Russian advance (2024)

KYIV, Ukraine — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will give Ukraine antipersonnel mines to help it slow Russia's battlefield advances, marking the second major shift on U.S. military support for Kyiv in days.

After allowing Ukraine to use longer-range American missiles to launch strikes deeper into Russia, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the shift in Washington's policy on antipersonnel land mines for Ukraine was needed to counter changing Russian tactics.

The war, which reached its 1,000-day milestone Tuesday, is largely going Russia’s way. Moscow’s bigger army is slowly pushing Ukraine’s forces backward in the eastern Donetsk region, while Ukrainian civilians are being maimed and killed by Russian drones and missiles often fired from inside Russia.

Individual ground troops, rather than forces more protected in armored carriers, are leading the Russian battlefield advance, so Ukraine has "a need for things that can help slow down that effort," Austin said during a trip to Laos.

The announcement comes two months before Donald Trump replaces Joe Biden in the White House. Trump pledges to swiftly end the war and criticizes the amount the U.S. spent on supporting Ukraine.

Biden administration officials say they are determined to help Ukraine as much as possible before he leaves office, and they announced Wednesday that the U.S. intends to cancel half of the debt — about $4.6 billion — Ukraine owes.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said U.S. lawmakers were informed of the move this week, and he doesn't expect them to pass a resolution of disapproval to try to stop the loan forgiveness because of the bipartisan support for Ukraine in the current Congress.

The steps taken to help Ukraine — along with unconfirmed reports Wednesday of Ukraine firing a British cruise missile at Russia for the first time — were likely to vex Moscow.

The U.S. and some other Western embassies in Kyiv temporarily closed Wednesday in response to the threat of a potentially major Russian aerial attack on the Ukrainian capital.

Humanitarian groups have long criticized the use of antipersonnel mines because they present a lingering threat to civilians. Amnesty International called the U.S. decision "reckless" and a "deeply disappointing setback." Norway's foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, called it "very problematic" because Ukraine is a signatory to an international convention opposing the use of land mines.

Austin said Ukraine already makes its own antipersonnel mines, and that the U.S. has been providing Ukraine with anti-tank mines. He also tried to allay concerns about the new mines the U.S. is giving Kyiv, saying they are not persistent, meaning troops can control when they would self-detonate.

"That makes it far more safer eventually than the things that they are creating on their own," Austin said.

The United States also sought commitments from the Ukrainians on the use of the mines to limit harm to innocent civilians, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The mines are contained in a $275 million package of new military assistance from the Biden administration, according to a different U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The war has taken on a growing international dimension with the arrival of North Korean troops to help Russia on the battlefield — a development that U.S. officials said prompted Biden's policy shift on allowing Ukraine to fire longer-range U.S. missiles into Russia, which angered the Kremlin.

After the Biden administration allowed Ukraine to attack Russia with longer-range American-made ATACMS missiles, Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for using his nuclear arsenal, with the new doctrine announced Tuesday permitting a potential nuclear response by Moscow even to a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power.

That could potentially include Ukrainian attacks backed by the U.S.

Western leaders dismissed the Russian reaction to the U.S. missile decision as an attempt to deter Ukraine's allies from providing further support to Kyiv.

Western and Ukrainian officials say Russia been stockpiling powerful long-range missiles, possibly in an upcoming effort to crush the Ukrainian power grid as winter approaches.

Military analysts say the U.S. decision on the range over which American-made missiles can be used isn't expected to be a game-changer, but it could help weaken the Russian war effort, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank.

"Ukrainian long-range strikes against military objects within Russia's rear are crucial for degrading Russian military capabilities throughout the theater," it said.