The US will soon provide anti-personnel mines to Ukraine, a US official confirmed, in a move that followed Ukraine's first use of US-supplied long-range ballistic missiles in an attack on Russia, writes the Voice of America (VOA).
The unnamed official said the US had asked Ukraine to make certain commitments regarding the use of mines, with the expectation that they would be deployed only on Ukrainian territory in areas where Ukrainian civilians do not live.
He also pointed to the function of mines, which they said require a battery to operate and will not be able to detonate after the battery runs out, after a period of several hours to several weeks.
Two US officials confirmed to VOA on Tuesday that the policy barring Ukrainians from using US-supplied long-range weapons to target military targets deep inside Russia has "changed".
The initial target that was targeted by the long-range missile system was at a much smaller distance than the maximum range of the missile system, which is 300 kilometers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long sought US approval to use such systems to launch attacks on military targets deep inside Russia. Until Sunday, however, Biden resisted for fear of escalating tensions between Moscow and the US-led NATO military alliance, whose four member countries border Russia.
Biden reportedly reversed his stance after North Korea sent about 10.000 troops to Russia to fight alongside Moscow's forces in Russia's Kursk region, which Ukraine captured in August and still controls.
Biden leaves office in two months, and it is not clear what position President-elect Donald Trump might take. Trump has been skeptical of continued US military support for Ukraine, claiming he would end the war before even taking office.
However, Trump has not offered any public plan on how he would do it, according to VOA.
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