President Joe Biden has authorized the provision of antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine, two U.S. officials said, 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 urgent actions that the lame-duck Biden administration is 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 assaults against Ukraine’s front lines in recent weeks and sees a pressing need to blunt the advance, officials said.
Officials said the Pentagon believes that providing the mines is among the most helpful steps the Biden administration can take to slow Russia’s attack.
One official said the type of antipersonnel land mine is “nonpersistent,” meaning that the mines self-destruct or lose battery charge to render them inactive within days or weeks, reducing the danger to civilians.
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 discuss sensitive internal White House deliberations candidly.
“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.”
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