[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 62 (Thursday, April 7, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2084-S2085]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

                                 ______
                                 

                           RUSSIAN LANDMINES

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, among the many barbaric atrocities 
committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine where civilian infrastructure 
including hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings have been 
repeatedly bombed and shelled and countless civilians have been 
summarily executed in the streets, the New York Times reports today 
that the Russians are using a new kind of landmine.
  This mine, called the POM-3, is inherently indiscriminate like other 
mines in that it cannot distinguish between a civilian and a combatant, 
and it is apparently equipped with a sensor that triggers the explosive 
when a person approaches. With a kill radius of 50 feet, it is even 
more deadly than a typical anti-personnel mine. And, unlike typical 
landmines, it cannot be disarmed by a human deminer because anyone who 
approaches it is likely to become a victim before reaching it. So it 
will be necessary to use robots to clear these mines, at great 
additional time and expense. As in other countries affected by armed 
conflict, it will be many years and almost certainly decades after the 
fighting ends, before the people of Ukraine can walk safely without 
fear of mines and other unexploded ordnance.
  Human beings seem to have an unlimited capacity to devise new ways of 
destroying the lives of others. Landmines are especially insidious 
because they maim or kill whoever comes into contact with them, or, in 
the case of the POM-3, whosever's footsteps it detects. It could be 
anyone, including a young child.
  No matter how ``sophisticated'' the technology, mines are an 
exceedingly primitive weapon because they are designed to be 
indiscriminate in an age of so-called precision munitions.
  Mines are the opposite. While landmines are so easy to make that it 
will never be possible to completely eliminate them, in 1997, the 
international community took an historic step, thanks in large part to 
the leadership of former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy and 
the tireless advocacy of the International Campaign to Ban landmines.
  In December of that year, countries came together to sign the 
Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and 
Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, known 
informally as the Ottawa Treaty or the Mine Ban Treaty. Today, the 
treaty has 164 states parties. But one of the reasons anti-personnel 
mines have yet to be universally stigmatized is because key countries 
including Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and the United States have 
not joined the treaty.
  Of course, when one country joins a treaty, it does not guarantee 
that others will. But the more countries that do, the harder it is for 
others to fail to do so, as they become the outliers, the pariahs. So 
if the United States, which has not used anti-personnel mines since 
1991, were to join the treaty it would not guarantee that Russia would. 
But it would greatly enhance our credibility to call out their use of 
mines, their devastating effects on innocent civilians, and the need to 
universalize the treaty.
  In 1994, President Clinton, at the United Nations, called for ridding 
the world of anti-personnel mines. He also directed the Pentagon to 
develop alternatives. They never did. While we can drive a robot on 
Mars 100 million miles away, our own military continues to stockpile 
landmines that are triggered by the victim. Whether a U.S. soldier or a 
child, our landmines, like Russian landmines, cannot tell the 
difference.
  If anything good can come of this catastrophic and senseless war in 
Ukraine, it would be for the international community to bring to 
justice those responsible for war crimes and for the United States to 
once and for all renounce the use of anti-personnel landmines. These 
are not weapons that belong in the arsenals of civilized nations and 
certainly not in the arsenal of the most powerful, modern military on 
Earth. Let us be the country that not only denounces their use in 
Ukraine, but denounces and renounces their use everywhere. What a gift 
to the world that would be.
  I ask unanimous consent that the New York Times article entitled 
``New Russian Land Mine Poses Special Risk in Ukraine'' be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From The New York Times, April 6, 2022]

          New Russian Land Mine Poses Special Risk in Ukraine

                            (By John Ismay)

       Washington--Russian forces in Ukraine appear to be using a 
     new type of weapon as they step up attacks on civilian 
     targets: an advanced land mine equipped with sensors that can 
     detect when people walk nearby.
       Ukrainian bomb technicians discovered the device, called 
     the POM-3, last week near the eastern city of Kharkiv, 
     according to Human Rights Watch, a leading human rights 
     group, which has reviewed photos provided by Ukraine's 
     military.
       Older types of land mines typically explode when victims 
     accidentally step on them or disturb attached tripwires. But 
     the POM-3's seismic sensor picks up on approaching footsteps 
     and can effectively distinguish between humans and animals.
       Humanitarian deminers and groups that campaign against the 
     use of land mines said the POM-3 would make future efforts to 
     locate and destroy unexploded munitions in Ukraine vastly 
     more complicated and deadlier.
       ``These create a threat that we don't have a response 
     for,'' said James Cowan, who leads the HALO Trust, a British 
     American charity that clears land mines and other explosive 
     remnants of war to help countries recover after conflicts. 
     The group began removing unexploded munitions from the Donbas 
     region of eastern Ukraine in 2016, after Russian-backed 
     separatists started fighting the Ukrainian government.
       ``We'll need to find some donors to procure robotics that 
     can allow us to deal with these threats at some distance,'' 
     Mr. Cowan added.
       The POM-3 is typically launched by a rocket and falls back 
     to earth by parachute before sticking into the ground--where 
     it waits, according to CAT-UXO, an online resource for 
     military and civilian bomb technicians. When the mine senses 
     a person, it launches a small explosive warhead that 
     detonates midair, producing fragments that are lethal up to 
     about 50 feet away.
       Mr. Cowan, a retired British Army major general, said his 
     staff of 430 Ukrainians clearing unexploded munitions in 
     Donbas had been unable to continue working since Russia 
     launched a full invasion of the country in late February, 
     with many staff members temporarily relocating in Ukraine. He 
     anticipates that in the future, HALO's operation across the 
     country will require about 2,500 workers, given that many 
     areas outside Donbas are now contaminated with unexploded 
     munitions as well.
       U.S. government officials have said Russia appears to be 
     moving troops to consolidate its hold on Donetsk and Luhansk, 
     which could mean that even more weapons like the POM-3 will 
     be used in the war.
       ``The war is entering a static phase--trenches are being 
     dug,'' Mr. Cowan said. ``This is the time when I would expect 
     the Russians to start using land mines on a massive basis.''
       HALO, which stands for Hazardous Area Life-Support 
     Organization, has about 10,000 employees around the world and 
     is among the few international nonprofits that have remained 
     in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of Kabul, the 
     capital, in August. Mr. Cowan said the future cleanup in 
     Ukraine would require roughly the same number of workers as 
     HALO's current operation in Afghanistan, which is recovering 
     from decades of armed conflict.
       The POM-3 is just one new hazard among many that his 
     organization expects to encounter, in addition to an untold 
     number of rockets, bombs and artillery shells that failed to 
     detonate on impact. Russia has also attacked Ukrainian arms 
     depots, causing fires and explosions that typically fling 
     hundreds or even thousands of damaged munitions into 
     surrounding areas.
       Once widely used around the world, antipersonnel land mines 
     often kill and maim civilians long after hostilities have 
     ceased. Ukraine is one of the 164 nations that have signed a 
     1997 treaty banning the use of antipersonnel land mines and 
     pledged to purge their stockpiles. The United States and 
     Russia have refused to join it.

[[Page S2085]]

       The treaty does not prohibit the use of antitank land 
     mines--which typically have a much larger explosive charge 
     and are designed to detonate only when a vehicle drives over 
     or near them--nor does it address improvised explosive 
     devices built to destroy vehicles. Videos posted on social 
     media purport to show both antitank mines and improvised bomb 
     attacks on Russian vehicles in Ukraine.
       Russia's use of land mines was among the discussions at an 
     event on Tuesday on Capitol Hill for the United Nations' 
     international mine awareness day, which brought together 
     groups that focus on the issue and lawmakers from Congress's 
     Unexploded Ordnance/Demining Caucus.
       ``Wars end, they stay,'' Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat 
     of Vermont, said of land mines and unexploded munitions. 
     ``The targets are invariably civilians, and they are in 
     places where you have a limited ability to provide lifesaving 
     medical care.''
       ``Look at what's happening in Ukraine--Russia is placing 
     land mines in people's homes, as well as children's 
     playgrounds and places where people go,'' Mr. Leahy said. 
     ``That's using it as a weapon of terror.''

                          ____________________