US gives anti-personnel mines to Ukraine to slow Russian advance – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will give Ukraine anti-personnel mines to help the country slow Russia’s advance on the battlefield. This marks the second major shift in US military support to Kiev in days.

After allowing Ukraine to use longer-range US missiles to launch attacks deeper into Russia, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the change in Washington’s policy on anti-personnel landmines for Ukraine was necessary to counter changing Russian tactics.

The war, which reached the thousand-day milestone on Tuesday, went largely in Russia’s favor. Moscow’s larger army is slowly pushing Ukrainian forces back in the eastern Donetsk region, while Ukrainian civilians are maimed and killed by Russian drones and missiles often fired from Russia.

Individual ground troops, rather than troops better protected in armored aircraft carriers, are leading the push into the Russian battlefield, so Ukraine “needs things that can help slow that effort,” Austin said during a trip to Laos.

The announcement comes two months before Donald Trump replaces Joe Biden in the White House. Trump has pledged to end the war quickly and has criticized the amount of money the US has spent supporting Ukraine.

Biden administration officials say they are committed to helping Ukraine as much as possible before he leaves office, and they announced Wednesday that the U.S. plans to pay half of the debt — about $4.6 billion — that Ukraine owes country owes. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said U.S. lawmakers were notified of the move this week, and he does not expect them to pass an adverse resolution to try to block loan forgiveness because of the bipartisan support for Ukraine in the current Congress.

The steps taken to help Ukraine — along with unconfirmed reports Wednesday that Ukraine fired a specific British cruise missile at Russia for the first time — were likely to irritate Moscow.

The US and several other Western embassies in Kiev closed for a day on Wednesday in response to the threat of a possible major Russian airstrike on the Ukrainian capital.

Humanitarian groups have long criticized the use of anti-personnel landmines as they pose a persistent threat to civilians. Amnesty International called the US decision ‘reckless’ and a ‘very disappointing setback’. And Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide called it “very problematic” because Ukraine is a signatory to an international convention against the use of landmines.

Austin pointed out that Ukraine already makes its own anti-personnel mines, and that the US supplies Ukraine with anti-tank mines. He also tried to allay concerns about the new mines the US is giving to Kiev, saying they are not persistent, meaning troops can control when to detonate themselves.

“That ultimately makes it much safer than the things they create themselves,” Austin said.

The mines are electrically fused and powered by batteries, so they do not explode if the battery runs out. They can become inert within four hours to two weeks.

Russia already uses landmines in Ukraine, but they do not become inert over time.

The United States also sought commitments from the Ukrainians on using the mines to limit harm to innocent civilians, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Ukraine would use the mines domestically and not place them in civilian populated areas.

The mines are part of a $275 million package of new military aid from the Biden administration, according to another U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid package has not previously been announced. Also included in the package are High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, as well as 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, Javelin anti-armor ammunition and other equipment and spare parts.

The war has taken on a growing international dimension with the arrival of North Korean troops to aid Russia on the battlefield — a development that U.S. officials say prompted Biden’s policy shift to allow Ukraine to deploy longer-range U.S. missiles at Russia, which angered the Kremlin. .

Britain had quietly pressured the US to ease restrictions on the use of Western-supplied missiles, and unconfirmed news reports said on Wednesday that Ukraine had fired British Storm Shadow cruise missiles at Russia for the first time. British and Ukrainian officials have not confirmed the reports.

French military and presidential office officials, meanwhile, declined to say whether Ukraine is using French SCALP long-range missiles to strike targets in Russia, citing France’s military secrecy policy. French President Emmanuel Macron has been pushing for such a move for months.

After the Biden administration allowed Ukraine to attack Russia with longer-range U.S. ATACMS missiles, Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for using its nuclear arsenal, saying the new doctrine announced Tuesday has a potential Moscow’s nuclear response even to a conventional attack. against Russia by any country backed by a nuclear power.

That could potentially include U.S.-backed Ukrainian attacks

The US diplomatic mission in Kiev said it had received a warning on Wednesday about a potentially significant Russian airstrike on the Ukrainian capital and remained closed that day. It expected a quick return to regular activities. The Spanish, Italian and Greek embassies were also closed that day, but the British government and France said their embassies remained open.

Western leaders have dismissed Russia’s response to the US missile decision as an attempt to deter Ukraine’s allies from providing further support to Kiev, but escalating tension weighed on stock markets after Ukraine fired ATACMS missiles at a target for the first time in Russia.

Western and Ukrainian officials say Russia has stockpiled powerful long-range missiles, possibly in an upcoming attempt to destroy Ukraine’s power grid as winter approaches.

Military analysts say the U.S. decision on the range within which U.S. missiles can be used is not expected to be a game changer, but it could help weaken Russia’s war effort, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Washington think tank.

“Ukrainian long-range strikes against military objects within the Russian rear are crucial for degrading Russian military capabilities across the theater,” the report said.

Meanwhile, North Korea recently delivered additional artillery systems to Russia, according to South Korea. It said that North Korean soldiers had been assigned to the Russian naval and airborne units and that some of them have already begun fighting on the front lines alongside the Russians.

Ukraine struck a factory in Russia’s Belgorod region that makes cargo drones for the armed forces in an overnight attack, said Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian Security Council’s anti-disinformation department.

He also claimed that Ukraine had struck an arsenal in Russia’s Novgorod region, near the city of Kotovo, about 680 kilometers (420 miles) behind the Ukrainian border. The arsenal contained artillery ammunition and several types of rockets, he said.

It was not possible to independently verify the claims.

Baldor reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Matthew Lee and Tara Copp in Washington, Jill Lawless in London and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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