President Biden has authorized the delivery of U.S.-made anti-personnel mines to Ukraine, heeding Kyiv’s pleas for military aid to bolster its defenses against the Russian invasion.
For centuries, militaries around the world have relied on land mines as a lethal and cost-effective way to defend territory. Once in place, many of them can stay armed and deadly indefinitely. But for that reason, human rights groups say they pose a grave and indiscriminate threat to civilians, for years or decades after a conflict has ended.
U.S. officials on Wednesday said that they were addressing those concerns by only providing Ukraine with anti-personnel mines that self-destruct after a set amount of time.
What are anti-personnel mines?
Anti-personnel mines are small, explosive weapons designed to detonate when a person steps on them, or comes close to them, according to Mine Action Review, a nonprofit that monitors the use of these weapons. Militaries typically deploy mines as defensive weapons, to prevent enemy forces from approaching or overtaking a certain area.
There are many different kinds of anti-personnel mines, and varied ways to distribute them. Some are shaped like hockey pucks, ranging from 3 to 16 inches in diameter, while others are shaped like a cylinder or cone.
They are designed to inflict different levels of injury. “Blast” mines, for instance, are designed to detonate with a range of force that could maim a victim or explode with enough force to kill someone, according to the United Nations. Other anti-personnel mines spray shrapnel into the air, sometimes bounding a few feet into the air before exploding.
Anti-personnel mines can be buried below the surface of the ground, or placed in a booby-trapped building. They can also sit on top of the ground; once activated by a short time delay, they launch a number of thin tripwires in different directions. When a person or an animal disturbs one of those wires, the mine explodes.
Modern land mines can be scattered by artillery shells, rockets, cluster bombs and launchers mounted onto helicopters or trucks.
Who is using anti-personnel mines?
Mines have been used since the American Civil War. They were used heavily during World War II, and American forces routinely employed them during the Korean and Vietnam wars. According to government records, the U.S. military last used anti-personnel mines widely during the Persian Gulf war in 1991.
The last reported use of anti-personnel mines by American forces came in 2002, when U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan used a single hand grenade made from a repurposed anti-personnel mine, known as a pursuit deterrent munition.
Russian forces have used more than a dozen different types of anti-personnel mines in Ukraine, dating as far back as the invasion of Crimea in 2014, according to Human Rights Watch. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has continued to deploy anti-personnel mines, with the weapons detected in 11 of 27 regions in Ukraine.
Last year, an investigation by Human Rights Watch found that Ukrainian soldiers had also fired artillery rockets containing anti-personnel land mines into a Russian-controlled area of eastern Ukraine.
Less than two months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the United States provided Ukraine with Claymores, which are anti-personnel mines placed above ground and detonated at the user’s discretion, making them allowable under international conventions if used correctly.
In September 2022 the Pentagon sent Ukraine artillery shells called RAAMS — for Remote Anti-Armor Mine System — that break open midair and dispense anti-tank mines.
Why are anti-personnel mines controversial?
Land mines can indiscriminately kill and maim noncombatants, years or even decades after the cessation of hostilities.
In 2022, land mines killed 1,661 people and injured 3,015, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Civilians made up 85 percent of those casualties, half of whom were children. Syria had the highest number of injuries and deaths, followed by Ukraine, Yemen and Myanmar.
Armies or groups of fighters that employ anti-personnel mines rarely map the areas they have mined. It is difficult for most people, especially children, to know where mines could be lurking.
Over the past 20 years, most countries have retired and destroyed their stockpiles of anti-personnel mines because of concerns about indiscriminate harm.
Older land mines are commonly known as “persistent” mines, meaning they can stay armed and lethal for many years. They use mechanical fuzes that enable the mine to explode as long as its internal mechanisms stay intact.
In the 1970s, the United States military developed a newer type of anti-personnel mine it calls “nonpersistent,” which incorporates electronics that allow the device to self-destruct after a preset amount of time. However, those safety mechanisms sometimes fail.
The lasting harm from land mines came to international attention in 1997, when Diana, the Princess of Wales, walked through a cleared minefield in Angola. Her campaign led to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, known formally as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. To date, 164 countries have formally agreed to the ban.
Ukraine is a signatory to the treaty, but has been tight-lipped about its use of the weapons since Russia’s invasion. The United States and Russia have not signed the treaty.
In 2022, the Biden administration reversed a Trump administration policy that loosened the restrictions on the U.S. military’s use of anti-personnel mines. The authorization announced this week appears to contradict that stance.