The US will soon provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines to shore up its defenses against Russian forces, a US official said late on Tuesday.
The decision comes as US President Joe Biden works to boost Ukraine’s war effort in the final two months of his administration, before Ukraine aid critic US president-elect Donald Trump takes power in January.
On Sunday, Biden gave Ukraine the green light to fire US-supplied long-range missiles into Russian territory for the first time.
Photo: AFP
The US official added that Washington has sought commitments from Ukraine to use the mines in its own territory and only in areas that are not populated to decrease the risk they pose to civilians.
The mines are known as being “nonpersistent,” because they go inert after a set period of time, when their battery power runs out.
Trump has repeatedly promised to end the war quickly, but has not provided details of how he would do so.
With Russia gaining ground and increasing talk of negotiations, Ukraine is wary of being at a disadvantage when it comes to hashing out a peace settlement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday told US television network Fox News that Ukraine will lose the war if the US pulls its funding to Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Russia on Tuesday said that it would respond after Ukraine fired longer-range US missiles at its territory for the first time, as Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a nuclear threat on the 1,000th day of the war.
A senior official said that a strike on Russia’s Bryansk region earlier on Tuesday “was carried out by ATACMS” (Army Tactical Missile System) supplied by the US.
Speaking 1,000 days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said the attack showed Western countries wanted to “escalate” the conflict.
“We will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia. And we will react accordingly,” Lavrov told a news conference at the G20 summit in Brazil.
Putin signed a decree on Tuesday lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons, a move that the White House, UK and EU condemned as “irresponsible.”
CRITICAL MOVE: TSMC’s plan to invest another US$100 billion in US chipmaking would boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, the premier said The government would ensure that the most advanced chipmaking technology stays in Taiwan while assisting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in investing overseas, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The statement follows a joint announcement by the world’s largest contract chipmaker and US President Donald Trump on Monday that TSMC would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next four years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, which would include construction of three new chip fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The government knew about the deal in advance and would assist, Presidential
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS