Posted on 11/20/24
| News Source: WBAL
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will give Ukraine antipersonnel mines to help it slow Russia’s battlefield advances, marking the second major shift on U.S. military support for Kyiv in days.
After allowing Ukraine to use longer-range American missiles to launch strikes deeper into Russia, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the shift in Washington’s policy on antipersonnel land mines for Ukraine was needed to counter changing Russian tactics.
The war, which reached its 1,000-day milestone on Tuesday, has largely been going Russia’s way. Moscow’s bigger army is slowly pushing Ukraine’s forces backward in the eastern Donetsk region, while Ukrainian civilians are being maimed and killed by Russian drones and missiles often fired from inside Russia.
Individual ground troops, rather than forces more protected in armored carriers, are leading the Russian battlefield advance, so Ukraine has “a need for things that can help slow down 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 swiftly end the war and has criticized the amount the U.S. has spent on supporting Ukraine.The US is sending antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine. Here’s what it means
Biden administration officials say they are determined to help Ukraine as much as possible before he leaves office, and they announced Wednesday that the U.S. intends to cancel half of the debt — some $4.6 billion — Ukraine owes to the country. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said U.S. lawmakers were informed of the move this week, and that he doesn’t expect them to pass a resolution of disapproval to try to stop the loan forgiveness because of the bipartisan support for Ukraine in the current Congress.
The steps taken to help Ukraine — along with unconfirmed reports Wednesday of Ukraine firing a certain British cruise missile at Russia for the first time — were likely to vex Moscow.
The U.S. and some other Western embassies in Kyiv closed for the d