Recently the USA has said it will provide Ukraine with American-made antipersonnel mines to help it fend off Russia's advances. Some officials in Kyiv dismissed warnings of a major Russian missile strike, blaming a psychological warfare operation carried out by Moscow, and the USA Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Kyiv would be provided with 'non-persistent' mines that don't pose a long-term threat to civilians.
Ukrainian officials have argued that using more land mines could help it stop Russia's human wave attacks in the east of the country, where much of the civilian population has already been evacuated.
Over 160 countries, including Ukraine, have signed up to a 1997 treaty banning the weapons because their long-term effects - after the end of the conflicts many civilians, including children, are hurt or even killed because the land mines. They are criticised as indiscriminate, with the potential to pose a threat to civilians long after any conflict has ended. The USA, Russia, China, and many other countries however have never agreed to a ban and now Russia is in the situation to anti-tank and antipersonnel mines extensively in the Ukrainian territory it has seized because they are afraid of them.
Deutsche Welle talks to Domitilla Sagramoso from King's College London on what the US-supplied landmines offer Ukraine, and former UK Defence Attaché John Foreman discusses Russia's latest threats following Kyiv's use of ATACMS rockets on Russian soil. The video chapters are the following:
- 00:00 Ukraine dismisses Russian attack threat
- 00:35 USA to give Ukraine antipersonnel landmines
- 01:14 Domitilla Sagramoso from King's College London on what mines offer Ukraine
- 06:17 Former UK Defence Attaché John Foreman discusses Russia's latest threats
