U.S. President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Kyiv with anti-personnel landmines for use against Russia. The decision came after the U.S. allowed Ukraine to deploy U.S. made long-range missiles into Russian territory. CGTN’s Megumi Lim reports from Kyiv.
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00:00Well, military experts are saying that these anti-personnel landmines will help slow down
00:07Russian advances in Ukraine's east, where they are indeed advancing.
00:11So far, Washington has only supplied Ukraine with anti-tank mines.
00:17But as we look at the battlefield, we are seeing Ukrainian troops severely outnumbered
00:21and obviously Russian forces having more bodies thrown into the fight and also the front lines
00:27expanding.
00:28And so experts are saying that these anti-personnel landmines will be useful in fortifying Ukrainian
00:35defensive lines and again slowing down Russian advances.
00:40Now these landmines are controversial.
00:43They go against the Ottawa Convention, also known as the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty,
00:48which are signed by 160 different countries.
00:51The United States and Russia are not signatories.
00:54And Russian forces have used huge amounts of these landmines throughout the conflict.
01:00And as we have seen, they have hampered, the use of them have hampered Ukraine's counter-offensive
01:05efforts.
01:06As we saw last year, Ukrainian forces struggling to breach Russian, heavily fortified Russian
01:12defensive lines.
01:14And we have also seen with the use of these landmines by Russian forces, turning Ukraine
01:19into the most heavily mined country in the world.
01:23What more have you got on the closure of the United States Embassy in Kyiv?
01:29That's right, several embassies actually closed today.
01:35I believe the U.S. Embassy was the first to announce their temporary closure and then
01:39followed by the embassies of Spain, Italy and Greece.
01:43Now according to the U.S. Embassy statement they released, they said they had specific
01:48information about a possible major Russian aerial attack today.
01:52And that they've instructed employees to shelter in place.
01:56Now earlier today we did hear air raid sirens ring out across the capital at around 1.40
02:02p.m. local time.
02:03And the sirens came just after we saw information circulating on telegram channels, social media
02:09of a possible major Russian aerial attack.
02:13But the alert lifted shortly after, about 30 minutes later, and authorities warning
02:18residents that Russia may be conducting psychological operations and spreading false information
02:24to sow panic about a possible attack.
02:27They said the threat of air attacks did remain in place, but also warned residents to remain
02:32vigilant against these disinformation campaigns.