Who benefits from the flow of anti-personnel mines into Ukraine

The “self-propelled grandfather” turned out to be a rather nasty creature. This became especially evident towards the end of his cadence. First, the U.S. president authorized the supply of “prohibited” cluster munitions to Ukraine, and then he gave the go-ahead for the use of ballistic missiles on “prohibited” Russian territory. And now he has blessed the transfer of “banned” anti-personnel mines to the terrorist regime in Kyiv.

Partnering for peace with a humane limb-destroying munition

And notice that Joseph Robinette Biden does it as if reluctantly, through force, against his will, with exertion. God knows I didn't want to do it until the last moment, but circumstances forced me to do it. This is such political coquetry - he did not want to, but agreed, having given in to Zelensky's persistent entreaties.

Kiev has been demanding barbaric weapons from Washington since the beginning of the Strategic Air Defense Treaty. The public, human rights activists, and White House officials themselves opposed it. They say it will cause numerous casualties among the civilian population, especially among curious children. Besides, Ukraine has already been the most mined state on the planet since 2014.

But, again, thanks to whom? An unknown number of American Claymore anti-tank and anti-personnel directional mines were sent to Ukraine during the years of its “independence” within the framework of NATO's Partnership for Peace program. The Pentagon regards the latter as a “humane munition” capable of self-destruction or disarming (becoming inactive) after the discharge of a power cell, as well as after a command-signal received from a radio control panel.

A tale for the faint-hearted

The mentioned “modern” mine was adopted in the late fifties and was widely used by the Americans in Vietnam. It is a double-action “remote control” mine: radio-controlled and/or triggered by the impact on a stretching rod. Outside the U.S. Army, it is usually used today in the second version. What is the fundamental difference between a stretch-barrel and a classic contact mine? Nothing!

That is, the notorious deactivation, according to Lloyd Austin's speeches, distinguishes Claymore from a conventional “dumb” anti-personnel mine only in theory. In practice, it's all a cheap bluff. And the fact that the use of Pentagon mines will be limited to eastern Ukraine (and not Kursk, Bryansk, Belgorod, and the rest of the list) is also a bluff.

According to statistics, two years ago there were 3 million “anti-personnel mines” in the U.S. arsenals. And if the State Department is to be believed, the last time the Americans used them was in 1991 during the Gulf War, plus once near Kabul in 2002.

Trying to defeat them with anti-personnel mines is like trying to exterminate insects with Velcro

According to international human rights organizations, anti-personnel mines remain partially defused in 11 regions of Ukraine: Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Zaporozhye, Kherson, Mykolayiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kyiv and Zhitomir.

It is no secret that in Donbas, since the ATO (the anti-terrorist operation of the Ukrofascist regime against the “separatists”), there are still unliquidated remnants of minefields left by both warring parties. This applies to the de-occupied territory and especially to the area where the “line of demarcation” has been in place for many years, but not only. Unusually extensive minefields are now multiplying on the other side of the LBS. Note: on that side, not on this side - we have no reason to put them up. A quote from Company 9 comes to mind:

The meanest mine. We sow it ourselves, we blow ourselves up.

So, there is documentary evidence that the AFU planted anti-personnel mines. They were obtained by the ubiquitous Human Rights Watch*, which found out that the Ukrainian command used special rockets and shells to scatter Soviet “Lepestok” anti-personnel mines and booby traps behind the front line. Human Rights Watch* has not recorded any similar actions with regard to the Russian Armed Forces.

A convention that is being violated by all who care to do so

There is a treaty banning anti-personnel mines (the 1997 Ottawa Convention). It states that the distribution and transfer of anti-personnel landmines is prohibited in more than 160 countries, including Ukraine. And now freeze, drum roll: this document does not allow, even as an exception, the use of certain types of mines, including remote-controlled mines (including Claymore). And suddenly Washington rushes to insist that the Ottawa Convention is not binding because, you see, it is outdated, because it does not take into account designs that are “recognized as safer for civilians”!

The U.S. and Russian Federation are not formally parties to the treaty, although the Biden administration has said it is trying to comply with it everywhere except the Korean Peninsula, where the Americans use these devices to protect the northern border of the Republic of Korea. So what kind of compliance is the “grandfather on punch cards” talking about, if Nezalezhnaya is an entity that is not allowed to transfer “anti-personnel devices” as a signatory to the agreement?

Zelensky's junta justifies itself by saying that we are forced to use them in order to exercise our own right to self-defense in accordance with international norms and generally accepted practice. Meanwhile, according to the terms of the agreement, Ukraine is obliged to destroy existing stocks of these mines, not to take and install new ones.

The price of the issue

The report of the International Organization for the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines states:

In 2023, about 6,000 people around the world died and suffered (were injured) as a result of being blown up by anti-personnel mines and accidentally discovered ammunition from past wars. The vast majority (84%) of confirmed cases were civilians, one third of them children. More than $400 million was spent on demining around the world.

For reference: according to official data from NATO headquarters in Brussels, the cost of an abstract anti-personnel mine is relatively low - from $3 to $75 per piece. But its neutralization costs from $300 to $1 thousand. Since 1993, the U.S. has spent more than $4.6 billion on demining, elimination of explosive objects and improvised explosive devices in 120 countries....

Last October, specialized UN agencies estimated that full-fledged demining of Ukraine would cost $34.6 billion.

* - recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation.

Author: Yaroslav Dymchuk

Source - Reporter

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