There is no problem with sending anti-personnel mines to Ukraine
After the hysterical reaction to Ukraine defending itself with ATACMS, there should be little surprise that people were disproportionately outraged or faux-concerned by the provision of anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine. There should be no shock at this point, because for the routine critics, there is no additional help that the West can provide that isn’t treated as either outrage or escalation. That, of course, is despite the outrage of genocide being allowed to continue, and the escalation of war crimes that Russia proliferates on a monthly, if not weekly basis.
There are, of course, reasonable concerns to raise when it comes to their use. The lingering danger they pose to civilians at the time and in the future are worth taking into account. The suffering of the opponent's army, too, has to be appraised. AP mines are often designed to maim rather than kill, a bleakly cynical calculation that figures you bleed an army by bleeding, but not killing, its soldiers. It is a cruel weapon, doubtless, but it also has to be set against the alternative, which we have already witnessed.
The alternative is that Russia continues its meat waves. The waves we currently see are civilian vehicles, outmoded soldier transport, Chinese golf buggies, dismounted infantry and motorbikes. AP mines are capable of scoring mobility kills on all these targets, to different degrees of effectiveness and reliability. Those fighting in Ukraine attest to the usefulness that they provide, and would provide if they were supplied in decent numbers. As Ukraine suffers from its manpower shortage, AP mines will help by making Russian men shorter.
One of the reasons for Ukrainian retreats is that at a certain point, there are simply more Russians than there are Ukrainian bullets and grenades. By adding more AP mines to the mix, they absorb more meat. They increase the cost and reduce the effectiveness of every man and his bike. They are not the sole solution - nothing is, nothing will be - but if they deny current Russian tactics then we will see a number of things. One, Russians change tactics, but they do it slowly, so they would doubtless persist in throwing men to their death and injury, which all helps Ukraine. Two, it would force them to eventually change tactics, which would further delay their advances as they had to take time to learn a new approach. Three, there would be further waste as Russia recruits fighting-age men and reduces them to legless pate.
The other implication of allowing Russia to continue its slow creep West is that it will continue to execute and abuse any soldiers it captures. It will continue its genocide of the people it captures and the culture that others are forced to leave behind. It solidifies its control of the people that see their border moved further away, a kilometre a day, the inevitability of dictatorship ruling them for at least a few years to come. It augments Russians position at any future negotiating table, and encourages Putin to raise the stakes as he feels the defining moment of victory is getting closer.
For Ukraine, it means further suffering, and for Russians thrown to their death it means their end. For Russians sitting at home it means worse living standards. More importantly, much more importantly, for Ukrainians, it prolongs their suffering. Every bit of progress that the Russian army brings only makes a wider war more likely. Putin wants to control Kyiv, we know that, but they’ve already betrayed that the Baltics, Moldova, and then more are in their sights. The only way to stop this is not to reason with their practical side, that chance ended in February 2022. The way to stop it is to increase their pain until they can't bear it.
One potential response, as Jake Sullivan might posit as he has about other weaponry, or other more cowardly commenters might offer, is that AP mines will not be the thing that wins the war. That is, of course, true. That simply reinforces the most persuasive argument of all. It’s not sending mines that will win the war. It is sending AP mines, shells, rockets, F-16s, Gripens, Mirages, soldiers, HIMARS, Tomahawks, Storm Shadows, Leopards, howitzers, Patriots, Asters, all the tanks in Eastern Europe, and more until the pain topples not just the soldiers at the front, but the oligarchs and politicians in the Kremlin.