Ukraine to get US land mines for use against Russian forces: Reports

US President Biden’s determination to supply antipersonnel mines comes aft Ukraine fired ATACMS missiles into Russia.

US President Joe Biden has approved providing antipersonnel onshore mines to Ukraine successful what has been seen arsenic different argumentation reversal connected weapons provided to Kyiv by the outgoing United States administration, according to reports.

The US expects Ukraine to usage the onshore mines successful its ain territory, though it has committed not to usage them successful areas populated with civilians, a US authoritative told the Reuters quality bureau connected Wednesday.

The Washington Post archetypal reported the determination by Biden, which reverses his earlier reluctance to supply onshore mines owed to concerns implicit the hazard they contiguous to civilian populations, which antimine campaigners accidental is unacceptably high.

Ukraine has received US-made antitank mines passim the warfare against invading Russian forces, but the summation of antipersonnel mines is aimed astatine stalling the expanding beforehand of Russian crushed forces successful caller months, a US authoritative told the Reuters quality agency, speaking connected information of anonymity.

The US onshore mines to beryllium provided to Ukraine are “non-persistent”, the US authoritative said, meaning they necessitate a artillery to detonate and volition not detonate erstwhile the artillery runs retired aft a preset play of time.

The proviso of US onshore mines comes connected the heels of Ukraine’s usage of US-provided ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles to onslaught targets wrong Russian territory for the archetypal time, pursuing newly-granted support from Biden that precocious US weaponry could beryllium utilized offensively against targets successful Russia.

Moscow warned connected Tuesday that it would respond to Ukraine’s firing of the longer-range ATACMS missiles, which reportedly deed targets successful Russia’s Bryansk region.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the rocket onslaught showed that Western countries wanted to “escalate” the conflict.

“We volition beryllium taking this arsenic a qualitatively caller signifier of the Western warfare against Russia. And we volition respond accordingly,” Lavrov told a quality league astatine the G20 acme successful Brazil.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree connected Tuesday lowering the threshold for utilizing atomic weapons, a determination that the White House, United Kingdom and European Union condemned arsenic “irresponsible”.

The Kremlin besides said connected Wednesday that a peculiar communications hotline established decades agone to avert imaginable atomic struggle betwixt the US and Russia is not presently successful usage arsenic tensions escalate betwixt Moscow and Washington amid Russia’s warfare successful Ukraine.

“We person a peculiar unafraid enactment for connection betwixt the 2 presidents, Russia and the United States. Moreover, adjacent for video communication,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s RIA quality agency.

But erstwhile asked whether this transmission was presently successful use, Peskov said, “No.”

The hotline betwixt Moscow and Washington was established successful 1963 to trim the misperceptions that stoked the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 by allowing nonstop connection betwixt the US and Russian leaders.

Russian diplomats accidental the situation betwixt Moscow and Washington present is comparable to the Cuban crisis, erstwhile the 2 Cold War superpowers came closest to intentional atomic war, and that the West is making a mistake if it thinks Russia volition backmost down implicit Ukraine.

Source

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Al Jazeera

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies