SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
ukraine
'Inconceivable': US Condemned Over Decision to Provide Landmines to Ukraine
"Ukraine already faces years of demining due to Russian landmine use," said the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. "Adding to this contamination would impact its own population for decades to come."
Nov 20, 2024
The Biden administration's decision Tuesday to reverse its own policy and greenlight the provision of anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine drew international condemnation, with human rights organizations warning that generations of civilians will bear the costs of the move.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its work against the weapons, said Wednesday that it "strongly condemns" the Biden administration's move and noted that Ukraine is prohibited from acquiring or using landmines under the terms of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.
Neither the United States nor Russia—which has used landmines repeatedly against Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in February 2022—are signatories to the treaty. But in 2022, the Biden administration barred the transfer and U.S. of American-made landmines except in defense of South Korea, reversing a Trump-era policy that weakened restrictions on the weapons.
"The U.S. must respect its own policy prohibiting landmine transfers," ICBL said Wednesday. "As the world's largest donor to mine clearance, spending millions annually to protect civilians, it's inconceivable the U.S. would facilitate laying new mines."
"Ukraine has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty since 2022. ICBL urges Ukrainian officials to demonstrate this commitment by refusing this transfer. International humanitarian law cannot be set aside during conflict," the organization added. "Ukraine already faces years of demining due to Russian landmine use. Adding to this contamination would impact its own population for decades to come."
ICBL implored the administration to reverse its decision, saying that "the protection of civilians cannot be compromised, even in extraordinarily difficult circumstances."
It's unclear when U.S. landmines will be shipped to Ukraine, which is already littered with landmines that, at the current pace, will take an estimated 757 years to remove. An unnamed official toldDefense News that the U.S. landmines would be delivered to Ukraine "soon."
On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced a fresh package of military assistance for Ukraine that includes mortar rounds, artillery ammunition, and "demolitions equipment and munitions." The package was announced hours after Ukraine fired American-made long-range missiles deep into Russian territory for the first time in the wake of U.S. President Joe Biden decision to allow Ukrainian forces to do so.
"Anti-personnel landmines are inherently indiscriminate weapons that maim and kill civilians long after conflicts end and shouldn't have a place in the arsenal of any country."
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Ukraine has "asked for" anti-personnel landmines.
"So I think it's a good idea," Austin said of the administration's decision to roll back its 2022 policy.
Ben Linden, advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia for Amnesty International USA, expressed strong disagreement, saying in a statement that the decision was "reckless" and "a deeply disappointing setback for a president who once agreed that landmines put more civilians at increased risk of harm."
"It is devastating, and frankly shocking, that President Biden made such a consequential and dangerous decision just before his public service legacy is sealed for the history books," said Linden. "Anti-personnel landmines are inherently indiscriminate weapons that maim and kill civilians long after conflicts end and shouldn't have a place in the arsenal of any country. Even the 'nonpersistent' mines are a threat to civilians. In the face of continued Russian aggression, including the killing and injuring of Ukrainian children, landmines are not the answer to keep civilians safe."
News of the Biden administration's decision came shortly before ICBL issued its annual report on anti-personnel landmines and their impacts worldwide.
The 142-page report found that "there were at least 5,757 new casualties from landmines and explosive remnants of war in 53 countries and two other areas in 2023, including 1,983 deaths."
"Civilians made up 84% of all recorded casualties in 2023," the report noted, "while children were 37% of casualties when the age was recorded."
Mark Hiznay, associate arms director at Human Rights Watch and an editor of the report, said in a statement that "new use of anti-personnel mines by countries that have not joined" the international mine ban convention "threatens both civilian lives and the effectiveness of this lifesaving treaty."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Putin Shifts Nuclear Posture as Ukraine Fires Long-Range Missiles into Russia
The "window to avert catastrophic miscalculation is now that much narrower," warned one expert after Biden lifted restrictions on U.S.-supplied weapons.
Nov 19, 2024
Fresh fears of escalation were expressed Tuesday after Ukraine struck territory deep inside of Russia using long-range missiles for the first time within hours of the Kremlin announcing changes to its nuclear weapons posture.
In the pre-dawn hours, Ukraine reportedlyused U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles to attack an ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of Russia, located less than 200 miles north of a small strip of Russian territory currently held by Ukraine thanks to an incursion mounted in summer 2024. Russian forces are working to push back Ukrainian forces in the area.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that there was an attack. "At 3:25 a.m. this morning the enemy struck a site on the territory of the Bryansk Region with six ballistic missiles. According to confirmed data, US-made ATACMS tactical missiles were used. As a result of an anti-missile battle, five missiles were shot down and one was damaged by crews of S-400 and Pantsir missile defense systems," the ministry said in statement, according to the Russian government-run news agency TASS.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia would respond "accordingly."
The attack comes on the 1,000th day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022, and mere days after President Joe Biden green lit Ukraine's use of these specific weapons – in what The New York Times characterized as a "major shift of American foreign policy" and one foreign policy expert called a "needlessly escalatory step."
Ukraine President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy has long sought permission from the U.S. government to use Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, according to the Financial Times. Zelenskyy has also asked for the lifting of restrictions on other long-range weapons provided by NATO countries – including Storm Shadow missiles from the United Kingdom. The U.S. began supplying the Lockheed Martin-produced ATACMS earlier this year, according to Defense One, but imposed restrictions on their use due to the escalatory implications of Ukraine using them to strike targets far inside Russian territory.
Also on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree implementing changes to the country's nuclear doctrine that lower the threshold for potential nuclear weapons use.
Under the updated doctrine, "aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies by any nonnuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state is considered as their joint attack," according to the The New York Times.
"The big picture is that Russia is lowering the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a possible conventional attack," Alexander Graef, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, toldReuters.
"Russia's new nuclear doctrine means NATO missiles fired against our country could be deemed an attack by the bloc on Russia. Russia could retaliate with WMD against Kiev and key NATO facilities, wherever they're located. That means World War III," wrote former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on X early Tuesday.
U.S. intelligence analysts have also concluded that granting Ukraine the ability to use U.S., French and U.K.-supplied long-range missiles could prompt forceful retaliation by Russia, but that the move would likely not fundamentally alter the course of the war.
Mark Episkopos, a Eurasia research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, warned Monday that use of such weapons by the Ukraine military would likely not impact the battlefield advantages of either side in the immediate term but puts "Russia and NATO one step closer to a direct confrontation."
"With such weapons now in play," added Episkopos, "the window to avert catastrophic miscalculation is now that much narrower."
Meanwhile, in a Tuesday statement on X, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), said it was "dangerously complacent" for Western politicians and pundits to dismiss Putin's shift as some kind of bluff.
"We can’t know if Putin—or any leader of a nuclear-armed country—will use nuclear weapons at any time," argued ICAN. "No matter the size of a nuclear weapon any use would escalate rapidly into a nuclear war devastating the world. The stakes are simply too high to assume Putin is bluffing."
ICAN, the 2017 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that the "way to prevent nuclear weapons from ever being used again is to eliminate them, and treaties like the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons are here for that."
The Biden administration's rollback of restrictions comes after thousands of North Korean troops have joined the Russian military effort, and as President-elect Donald Trump's January inauguration approaches. Trump has said he will seek a swift end to the war and criticized the amount of aid the United States has provided Ukraine.
Keep ReadingShow Less
US Approval of Long-Range Missiles Called 'Very Big Step' Towards World War III
One antiwar critic ripped Biden's permission for Ukraine to fire the powerful weapons on Russian targets as "utterly unhinged."
Nov 17, 2024
While neocons from both sides of the proverbial political aisle welcomed what some described as President Joe Biden's "long overdue" decision Sunday to allow Ukrainian forces to strike deep inside Russia with U.S.-supplied long-range missiles, antiwar voices sounded the alarm on what one senior Kremlin official called "a very big step towards the start of World War III."
"Biden has for the first time allowed Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike deep inside Russia," comedian, podcaster, and antiwar writer Lee Camp wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. "Apparently the Dems want WWIII before they leave office. Utterly unhinged."
President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to take office in 63 days, has vowed to quickly end the nearly 1,000-day war, which Russia started in February 2022 with a massive invasion of its smaller neighbor amid significant NATO provocations.
The New York Timesreported that the Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS)—which has a range of 190 miles—will likely first be deployed against Russian and recently arrived North Korean troops in the Kursk region of western Russia, where Ukrainian forces have seized a sizable swath of Russian territory.
"Strikes with U.S. missiles deep into Russian regions will inevitably entail a serious escalation, which threatens to lead to much more serious consequences."
The Times said Biden dropped his previous reservations over allowing Ukraine to use the missiles for fear of Moscow's retaliation due to "the sheer audacity of Russia's decision to throw North Korean troops at Ukrainian lines."
Earlier this year, Biden quietly gave Kyiv the green light to carry out limited cross-border strikes near Kharkiv with shorter-range missiles as Russian forces menaced Ukraine's second-largest city.
Taking their cues from Biden, Britain and France on Sunday also dropped their objections to Ukraine using long-range offensive missiles provided by the two countries to attack targets inside Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday: "Today, many in the media are talking about the fact that we have received permission to take appropriate actions. But blows are not inflicted with words. Such things are not announced. The rockets will speak for themselves."
In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the U.S. and its allies that approval for Ukrainian attacks with Western long-range missiles "will mean nothing less than the direct involvement of NATO countries."
Russian officials responded to Biden's move with warnings of serious repercussions.
"Strikes with U.S. missiles deep into Russian regions will inevitably entail a serious escalation, which threatens to lead to much more serious consequences," said Leonid Slutsky, who chairs a key foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, according toReuters.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular