Biden steps up provocations against Russia by approving antipersonnel mines for Ukraine

Biden approves antipersonnel mines for Ukraine, undoing his own policy. The move comes as Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine threaten to overwhelm front-line defenses, writes ‘The Washington Post’.

President Joe Biden has authorized the provision of antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine, 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

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, U.S. officials said.

“They have a need for things that can help slow down that effort on the part of the of the Russians,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters

Biden had been reluctant to supply Ukraine with the mines in the face of concerns within his own administration and from a wide range of anti-mine advocates who say the risk to civilians is unacceptably high. But Russia’s battlefield progress in recent months has forced the White House to find fresh ways to help Kyiv, especially following the victory of President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to steer the conflict toward a swift conclusion.

 Biden in 2022 revived an Obama-era policy that banned the transfer and use of U.S. antipersonnel land mines outside the Korean Peninsula.

But some human rights campaigners said that the U.S. decision to provide antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine — a signatory to the Mine Ban Treaty — is a black mark against Washington.

“It’s a shocking and devastating development,” said Mary Wareham, deputy director of the crisis, conflict and arms division at Human Rights Watch, the advocacy group, who said that even nonpersistent mines hold risks for civilians, require complicated cleanup efforts and are not always reliably deactivated.

“Antipersonnel landmines are inherently indiscriminate weapons that maim and kill civilians long after conflicts end and shouldn’t have a place in the arsenal of any country,” Ben Linden, the advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia for Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.

read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs