US will provide antipersonnel mines to Ukraine: US official

WASHINGTON: The United States will soon provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines to shore up its defenses against Russian forces, a US official said late Tuesday.

The decision comes as President Joe Biden works to boost Ukraine’s war effort in the final two months of his administration, before Ukraine aid critic Donald Trump takes power in January.

On Sunday, Biden gave Ukraine the green light to fire US-supplied long-range missiles into Russian territory for the first time.

The US official added that Washington has sought commitments from Ukraine to use the mines in its own territory and only in areas that are not populated in order to decrease the risk they pose to civilians.

The mines are known as being “non-persistent” because they go inert after a set period of time, when their battery power runs out.

Trump has repeatedly promised to end the war quickly, but has not provided details of how he would do so.

With Russia gaining ground and increasing talk of negotiations, Ukraine is wary of being at a disadvantage when it comes to hashing out a peace settlement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told US television network Fox News Tuesday that Ukraine will lose the war if the United States pulls its funding to Kyiv.

For its part Russia warned it would respond to Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles — which it launched for the first time Tuesday — with President Vladimir Putin issuing a possible nuclear threat as the conflict passed the 1,000 day benchmark.