Landmines in Biden’s Legacy

In March, Russian soldiers killed nine children in Afghanistan. That news might come as a surprise since Russia isn’t involved in any fighting in that nation. But the children, who ranged from 5 to 10 years old, were killed when a landmine exploded. That landmine had sat there like a silent assassin since Russian forces placed it during their failed invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. A war from four decades ago claimed more victims this year — children who weren’t even alive during the fighting.

Unfortunately, Afghanistan is not alone in facing this plague. A report released last month by the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor group documented 1,983 deaths in 2023 from landmines and other explosive remnants of war. The explosions occurred in 53 countries and also injured another 3,663 people. Civilians accounted for 84% of the victims, with children comprising 37% of the causalities. Many of those casualties occurred in nations decades after the end of the fighting that led to the employment of the deadly weapons.

“Landmines are inherently indiscriminate weapons, meaning that, by design, it is not possible for the mine to be deployed to target a specific person,” the report notes. “These weapons can be found on roads and footpaths, in farmers’ fields, in forests and deserts, along territorial borders, in and around critical infrastructure, in houses and schools, as well as other places where people are carrying out their daily activities.”

Since 1999, more than 45,000 people have been killed by landmines and other explosive remnants of war, with another 110,000 injured. About 80% of the casualties are civilians, with children accounting for 43% of the casualties. The nations with the most casualties from landmines last year were Myanmar, Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Efforts to remove landmines continue across the globe. In 2023, more than 160,000 landmines were destroyed during their clearing from more than 170 square miles of land in Cambodia, Croatia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

Despite that slow progress in some nations, the epidemic of landmines is actually growing. Russian forces have laid millions of landmines in Ukraine since its full-scale invasion of that nation in 2022. Ukrainian forces have also installed some landmines. About one-third of Ukraine — an area about the size of Florida — is now littered with deadly landmines. More than 1,000 Ukrainian civilians have died from landmines since 2022. Just walking to school or farming on your own land could be deadly.

A serviceman of the 24th Mechanised Brigade installs anti-tank landmines along the front line near Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, on Oct. 30, 2024. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukrainian 24th Mechanised Brigade via AP)

Easy to plant, hard to remove, landmines are like an invasive weed — except instead of killing your grass it kills you or your child. Even if the Russian war against Ukraine ended tomorrow, it would take years and billions of dollars to remove the landmines already laid by Russian and Ukrainian forces. Long after the bloody tyrant Vladimir Putin is dead, he will continue to slaughter children and other civilians in Ukraine with his hellish landmines.

The U.S. is already helping with the effort to remove Putin’s landmines, giving more than $100 million to help Ukraine clear landmines. But now, the Biden administration is working to add to the problem.

Last week, President Joe Biden approved giving landmines to Ukraine. It marked a significant flip-flop by Biden, who had previously criticized the use of landmines and barred usage of the U.S.’s stockpile. In a moment of incredible tone-deaf irony, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin defended transferring landmines to Ukraine while he visited Laos, a nation where every year civilians die from cluster bombs the U.S. dropped on the nation more than 50 years ago. Like cluster bombs, landmines are barred by international treaties that most nations have signed (but not the U.S.) and kill civilians decades later. Last year, Biden started giving cluster bombs to Ukraine.

Human rights advocates quickly blasted Biden’s move. Ben Linden of Amnesty International USA called it “a reckless decision and a deeply disappointing setback.” He added, “It is devastating, and frankly shocking, that President Biden made such a consequential and dangerous decision just before his public service legacy is sealed for the history books.”

Linden and other advocates are right that landmines are dangerous and immoral weapons that will kill children and other civilians for decades. He’s also correct that this move by the lame-duck Biden will impact his presidential legacy. But while devastating, it’s also just the latest move by Biden toward building a legacy of death and broken promises. So this issue of A Public Witness uncovers the history of using and opposing landmines to consider how this new policy move destroys the moral high ground Biden often tried to claim during his presidency.