Anti-personnel mines will be very useful for Ukraine

The decision by the Biden administration to supply Ukraine with thousands of anti-personnel mines will, I imagine, be greeted with unalloyed joy within Kyiv’s corridors of military power.

The US has provided Ukraine with anti-tank mines throughout its war with Russia, but the addition of anti-personnel mines is aimed at blunting the advance of Russian ground troops in the east, and in the Russian region of Kursk where Ukrainian forces are fighting to cling onto the ground they captured earlier this year. 

Anti-personnel mines are designed to maim and not kill. Their sole purpose is to slow down the advance of enemy troops. Each device contains just enough plastic explosive – a couple of ounces – to blow off someone’s foot or lower leg. This means wounded troops are either left screaming on the battlefield as their comrades continue to advance or they are carried back by up to eight other soldiers to an evacuation point where they will enter the medical chain.