U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Wednesday that the Biden administration will permit Ukraine to deploy American-supplied antipersonnel land mines as part of its defense against Russian forces. The policy shift comes in response to evolving Russian military strategies on the battlefield.
Speaking during a visit to Laos, Austin explained that Russian forces are increasingly relying on ground troops rather than heavily protected armored carriers. This shift has created a pressing need for tools to slow Russian advances.
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“The land mines that we would look to provide them would be land mines that are not persistent, you know, we can control when they would self-activate, self-detonate, and that makes it, you know, far more safer eventually than the things that they are creating on their own,” Austin said.
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