The Biden administration will allow Ukraine to use American-supplied antipersonnel land mines to help it slow Russia's battlefield progress in the war, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said on Wednesday, according to AP.

Speaking to reporters during a trip to Laos, Austin said the shift in Washington's policy on antipersonnel land mines for Ukraine 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."

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," he said.

Nonpersistent land mines generally require batteries, so overtime they become unable to detonate, making them safer for innocent civilians than those that remain deadly for years.

Austin noted that Ukraine is currently manufacturing its own antipersonnel land mines.

The United States already provides Ukraine with antitank land mines. Russia has routinely used land mines in the war, but those do not become inert overtime.