White House approves controversial antipersonnel mine for Ukraine

President Joe Biden authorized sending antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine, reversing his administration’s previous policy restrictions on these weapons, The Washington Post (WP) reported on 19 November.

The decision follows the lifting restrictions on using long-range weapons to strike inside Russia. These moves represent a significant shift from Biden’s earlier stance on both issues.

While the US has provided anti-tank mines to Ukraine since 2022, Ukraine has sought anti-personnel mines during this period. Earlier Biden was hesitated regarding mine transfers due to concerns about civilian casualties.

About 160 countries have signed the Ottawa Convention and the Mine Ban Treaty banning such weapons, though both the US and Russia are not parties to this treaty. Ukraine is a signatory of the to the Mine Ban Treaty.

The US currently maintains a stockpile of about 3 million antipersonnel land mines, which haven’t been used since 1991 except for one incident in Afghanistan in 2002.

The move represents a significant shift from Biden’s earlier stance. As a presidential candidate, Biden had criticized Trump’s 2020 decision to allow mine use, calling it “reckless” and stating it would “put more civilians at risk of being injured by unexploded mines.”

The administration argues these particular mines are “nonpersistent,” with one official telling the Post they “self-destruct or lose battery charge to render them inactive within days or weeks.” Ukrainian policymakers have committed to not deploying the mines in densely populated areas.

According to US officials who spoke with the WP, the decision comes as Russian forces are making their fastest territorial gains since 2022 in eastern Ukraine.

“Russia is attacking Ukrainian lines in the east with waves of troops, regardless of the casualties that they’re suffering,” one US official told the Post. “These mines were made specifically to combat exactly this.”

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