The U.S. decision to provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines expands the use of a weapon that the international community has long condemned because of its danger to innocent civilians. And it reflects another in a long line of American policy shifts on the controversial issue in the past 30 years.
U.S. officials say the mines are needed to help Ukraine stall Russian progress on the battlefield, where Moscow’s forces are moving in smaller ground units on the front lines rather than in more heavily protected armored vehicles.
The Defense Department has been providing Ukraine with anti-tank mines throughout the war. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the new policy will give Ukraine “nonpersistent antipersonnel land mines” that are safer because they lose the ability to detonate over time.
The change shows the Biden administration “has clearly and belatedly become less risk averse as it eyes troubling battlefield developments in Ukraine and worries how U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Russia may change on January 20,” when President-elect Donald Trump takes office, according to Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Trump has criticized U.S. support for Ukraine and vowed to quickly end the war.
As Ukraine has gotten more effective in drone warfare, Russian troops moving in armored vehicles are at greater risk of being hit by the drones, so have been moving by foot, making them harder to target, Bowman said.
Here is where the U.S. stands on antipersonnel mines and what it means:
TYPES OF MINES
Mines range from larger, destructive ones that can take out a tank to smaller, antipersonnel variants that are hidden just beneath the surface of the ground and explode by a person’s weight.
The Biden administration is sending Ukraine antipersonnel mines that have a limited capacity. The so-called nonpersistent mines are electrically fused and powered by batteries. Once the battery runs out, they won’t detonate, and they can become inert in anywhere from four hours to two weeks.
The U.S. has sought commitments from the Ukrainians to limit harm to civilians, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Ukraine would use the mines in its own country but wouldn’t put them in civilian populated areas.
Throughout the war, the U.S. has given Ukraine larger, anti-tank mines, which are also battery-powered, so will become inert over time. The Remote Anti-Armor Mine System, or RAAM, is an artillery shell that contains the anti-tank mines.
When fired, it scatters the mines, which can damage armored vehicles. The mines can also be set to self-detonate in four hours or 48 hours.
AN OUTLIER ON LAND MINES
The U.S. is one of just a small number of major nations that have not signed on to the 1997 Ottawa Convention, which prohibited the use, production and transfer of antipersonnel mines.
As of 2022, 164 countries had ratified or agreed to the treaty. But several major powers, which are also past and current manufacturers of land mines, did not sign on, including the United States, China and Russia. South Korea, India and Pakistan also did not join the treaty.
A key issue is that the mines are widely used in North and South Korea, particularly along the demilitarized zone, and are part of the U.S. campaign to protect the South from invasion by Pyongyang.
Humanitarian groups for years have pushed the U.S. to join the ban treaty. According to NATO, nearly 70 countries and territories are still affected by the presence of 110 million land mines, which can “remain dormant, concealed beneath the earth, for many years before being triggered.”
Earlier this year, NATO said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned the nation into one of the most mine-laden countries in the world. Human Rights Watch has said that 11 of Ukraine’s 27 regions are now scattered with mines. The Russian mines are more deadly, as they largely are not those that become inert over time.
Biden’s decision was immediately condemned by Amnesty International, which said that even those type of mines are a threat to civilians.
“This is a reckless decision and a deeply disappointing setback for a President who once agreed that land mines put more civilians at increased risk of harm,” said Ben Linden, an advocacy director for Amnesty International USA. “It is devastating, and frankly shocking, that President Biden made such a consequential and dangerous decision just before his public service legacy is sealed for the history books.”
THE EVOLVING U.S. POLICY
President Bill Clinton had a goal of limiting mine use and joining the treaty, but under President George W. Bush, the administration pulled back due to wide objections from military leaders. The policy under Bush was that the U.S. would use persistent mines — ones that do not automatically become inert — until 2010, and then not use them anymore.
President Barack Obama ordered up a review of the U.S. policy and eventually prohibited the military from using any land mines anywhere in the world except in defense of South Korea.
In January 2020, President Donald Trump canceled the Obama-era prohibition and eliminated geographic limits on the use of land mines that would become inert over time. Then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote at the time that commanders “may authorize the use of nonpersistent land mines when necessary for mission success in major contingencies or other exceptional circumstances.” The term “major contingency” was not explicitly defined.
When President Joe Biden took office, the Trump policy was rolled back, and use of the antipersonnel mines was prohibited outside of the Korean Peninsula. The administration decision, announced in June 2022, said all mines not required for the defense of South Korea would be destroyed. At that time, there were an estimated 3 million antipersonnel mines in the U.S. stockpile, but officials would not say how many of those would be considered necessary to defend South Korea.
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Associated Press writer Tara Copp contributed to this report.