US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday, November 20, that the Biden administration will allow Ukraine to use American-supplied antipersonnel land mines to help fight off Russian forces. Speaking to reporters during a trip to Laos, he said the shift in policy follows changing tactics by the Russians.

Austin said Russian ground troops are leading the movement on the battlefield, rather than forces more protected in armored carriers, so Ukraine has "a need for things that can help slow down that effort on the part of the Russians."

"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.

Antipersonnel land mines have long been criticized by charities and activists because they present a lingering threat to civilians. Austin countered that argument. "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 far more safer eventually than the things that they are creating on their own," Austin said.

The US and some other Western embassies in Kyiv also said Wednesday that they would stay closed for security reasons, with the American delegation saying it had received a warning of a potentially significant Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital.

The precautionary step came after Russian officials promised a response to President Joe Biden's decision to let Ukraine strike targets on Russian soil with US-made missiles – a move that angered the Kremlin.