The White House will announce more military aid to Ukraine worth up to $275 million, the US defense secretary has said.

Lloyd Austin said the support would “meet critical battlefield needs” and would include ammunition for rocket systems, artillery and anti-tank weapons.

During a briefing in Laos, Austin also explained the decision to supply Ukraine with anti-personnel landmines.

“What we’ve seen lately is, because the Russians have been so unsuccessful in the way they’ve been fighting, they’ve kind of changed their tactics a little bit and they’re not leading with their mechanized forces anymore.” he said.

“They lead with dismounted forces that can close and do things to sort of pave the way for mechanized forces.”

Ukraine now needs weapons such as anti-personnel mines to slow Russia’s efforts on the ground, he said.

“The landmines that we would make sure to provide them would be landmines that are not persistent — we can control when they would self-activate, self-detonate, and that makes it much safer eventually than the things that (the Ukrainians) create on their own.”