What are antipersonnel mines, widely banned weapons Biden is giving Ukraine?

President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines, easing U.S. restrictions on the weapon as Russian forces continue to advance on the war’s front lines.

Kyiv has sought antipersonnel land mines since Russia invaded nearly three years ago, but officials within the Biden administration were reluctant to provide the weapons out of concern that they posed too great a risk to civilians. Rights groups condemned the provision of land mines to Ukraine, arguing that they are dangerous and costly to clear. Ukraine is already the most mined country in the world.

Here’s what to know:

What are antipersonnel land mines?

Antipersonnel land mines are small explosive charges buried in or placed on the ground, intended to kill or injure enemy troops. They can be detonated by physical contact, a person in proximity or remotely.

Their deployment can delay the movement of enemy troops or force them to reroute - making it easier to track their path and target them with artillery and rockets.

Antipersonnel land mines differ from antitank mines, which target vehicles. An unspecified number of antitank mines have been sent to Ukraine, the Pentagon previously said. The United States has also provided Ukraine with Claymore mines, an antipersonnel explosive that is set above ground and can be triggered by an operator.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that Washington would provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines that are “not persistent,” adding that the United States can “control when they self-activate.”

One official told The Washington Post that these mines can be set to self-destruct or lose battery charge to render them inactive at a set time after they are deployed. The official and three others spoke to The Post about the U.S. decision on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss sensitive internal White House deliberations.

The ability to be rendered inactive or to self-destruct distinguishes the nonpersistent weapons from “dumb” or persistent antipersonnel land mines, which pose the biggest danger to civilians worldwide. They have a detonation mechanism that is automatically triggered by the weapon’s victim, with no safeguards to distinguish between civilians and military personnel. Persistent land mines can lie dormant for decades, inflicting casualties long after a conflict ends.

The Pentagon in recent years has championed nonpersistent antipersonnel land mines as safer for civilians.

It was not immediately clear how many antipersonnel land mines the administration intends to provide Kyiv. According to one official, use of the weapon will be limited to within Ukrainian territory, with an expected focus on the east, where Ukraine’s forces in recent months have lost territory at the fastest rate since 2022.

Why did the Biden administration reverse its ban on providing Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines?

The Biden administration is deeply concerned by Russian troop offensives against Ukraine’s eastern front lines in recent weeks and sees an urgent need to stop the advances, officials told The Post.

The Pentagon believes that the provision of these mines is one of the most helpful steps the administration can take to hinder Russian attacks, an official said.

The move is the latest step by the Biden administration to loosen existing restrictions on military aid to Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. Trump has indicated a desire to end the war, reportedly on terms more favorable to Russia than Ukraine has been willing to accept.

The Biden administration confirmed over the weekend that it has eased a ban on Ukraine’s use of the U.S.-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) against targets inside Russia. On Tuesday, Ukraine fired ATACMS missiles into Russia for the first time, marking an intensification of the war.

As of 2022, the United States had a stockpile of about 3 million antipersonnel land mines. That year, the State Department said U.S. forces last deployed the weapon in 1991, in the Persian Gulf War, apart from a single incident in Afghanistan involving a lone munition in 2002.

Are land mines already being used in the war in Ukraine?

According to Human Rights Watch, Ukrainian territory is “severely contaminated” with land mines, the use of which it has documented in 11 of Ukraine’s 27 regions.

Russian forces have liberally deployed antipersonnel land mines on the front lines since they invaded in February 2022, using at least 13 different types of the weapon, according to Human Rights Watch.

In occupied eastern Ukraine, Russian forces have laid unusually extensive mine fields that have helped them defend territory. When Ukrainian forces tried to clear them last year, Russian drones directed artillery fire at them - further thwarting Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

There is also evidence that Ukrainian forces have deployed antipersonnel land mines. Despite commitments by Ukraine against the use of the mines, Human Rights Watch previously found evidence that Kyiv’s forces used rockets to scatter stacks of hand-size antipersonnel land mines over Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine.

The rights group identified the remains of rockets used to scatter PFM-1S antipersonnel mines, of Soviet or Russian origin, which are intended to self-destruct over a period of one to 40 hours. When that mechanism fails, which it often does, the mines threaten civilians by remaining undetonated on the ground indefinitely. Ukraine has not publicly said whether it uses the PFM-1S mines.

Which countries allow the use of antipersonnel land mines?

The deployment and transfer of antipersonnel land mines is banned by over 160 countries, including Ukraine, which are parties to the 1997 Ottawa Convention, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty.

Neither Russia nor the United States is a signatory to the treaty, though the Biden administration has said it planned to adhere to its rules except in the Korean Peninsula, where U.S. forces use the devices to defend South Korea’s northern border.

Ukraine, which is a signatory, has responded to previous claims that it used the weapon by stating that it exercises its right to self-defense in line with its international obligations.

The treaty does allow for the use of some mines - including antitank mines and certain remote-controlled mines (such as Claymores), both of which are considered safer for civilians.

Tamar Gabelnick, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, strongly condemned any change in the Biden administration’s policy to provide the weapons.

“These horrific, indiscriminate weapons were banned by the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty given the devastating impact they have on civilians’ lives and livelihoods,” she wrote in an email Wednesday. Ukraine has international obligations to not deploy the mines, she said, adding that there was no exception in the Mine Ban Treaty for nonpersistent mines.

In a report published Wednesday, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines recorded at least 5,757 deaths and injuries worldwide in 2023 as a result of land mines and the explosive remnants of war. The vast majority - 84% - of known victims were civilians, it found, with children accounting for one-third of the civilian casualties.

Gabelnick said a decision to provide antipersonnel land mines would lengthen the mammoth demining task that Ukraine already faces as a result of Russia’s extensive use of the weapons throughout its invasion.

“The rationale for the comprehensive ban was that these mechanisms are not 100% fail-safe, and therefore once emplaced, these mines can still pose a danger to civilians and soldiers alike,” she said.

How much do antipersonnel land mines cost?

According to NATO, land mines are relatively cheap to produce - ranging from $3 to $75 per weapon - but far more expensive to clear, costing an estimated $300 to $1,000 to clear each weapon.

Last year, more than $400 million was spent worldwide on mine clearance efforts, according to Wednesday’s report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The State Department said last year that since 1993, the United States has spent more than $4.6 billion to clear land mines and explosive remnants of war in more than 120 countries.

In October, U.N. agencies estimated that it would cost $34.6 billion to fully demine Ukraine, which is believed to be seeded with hundreds of thousands of explosive remnants of war.