After authorizing ATACMS strikes inside Russia, Biden agrees to supply Ukraine with antipersonnel mines — The Washington Post

The Biden administration has authorized the provision of antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine, two sources in the U.S. government told The Washington Post. The policy change comes days after the White House greenlit Ukrainian strikes against targets inside Russia using American-supplied long-range missile systems. 

The new measures represent Washington’s efforts to bolster Kyiv’s defenses against an advancing Russian invasion in the Donbas and respond to the North Korean military’s intervention in Russia’s Kursk region against Ukrainian occupation forces.

The Washington Post reports that the U.S. plans to send a type of antipersonnel land mine that is “nonpersistent” with self-destruct features and limited battery life, though members of the Biden administration itself and “a wide range of anti-mine advocates” say the risk to civilians is unacceptably high.

Neither Russia nor the United States is a party to the Ottawa Convention, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits the deployment and transfer of antipersonnel land mines. According to Human Rights Watch, Russian forces have used at least 13 types of antipersonnel mines in multiple areas across Ukraine, killing and injuring civilians. The organization has also uncovered evidence that Ukraine uses these indiscriminate weapons, too, in violation of its commitments under the Ottawa Convention.