Ukraine hopes leaving landmine treaty will level the battlefield
Ukraine has taken the first legal step towards withdrawing from the international treaty banning landmines, arguing that the restrictions create an 'unequal' situation on the battlefield as Russia makes extensive use of them.
President Zelensky signed a decree on Sunday instructing his government to begin withdrawing Ukraine from the 1997 Ottawa convention, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty.
The foreign ministry said that Russian use of anti-personnel mines since 2014, which increased after the full-scale invasion of 2022, has created an unequal situation that limits Ukraine's right to self-defence.
In his nightly video address, Zelensky accused Moscow of 'using anti-personnel mines with utmost cynicism' in Ukrainian territory and of seeking to 'destroy life by all means at their disposal'. He also described anti-personnel mines as 'often the instrument for which nothing can be substituted for defence purposes'.
The decision must be confirmed by parliament before Ukraine can formally withdraw from the treaty.
Poland made the same decision a week ago in response to security fears over the threat from Russia. Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the defence minister, said at the time that Warsaw intended to leave the treaty because of 'security conditions on the eastern flank'.
Other countries bordering Russia, including Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, have either withdrawn, suspended certain treaty obligations or publicly signalled that they may do so. Russia is not a signatory to the treaty.
On Friday Lithuania said it had notified the United Nations of its withdrawal, and it will cease to be bound by the treaty six months after the notification. Kestutis Budrys, it foreign minister, said on X: 'This decision was not taken lightly.'
The potential withdrawals are a blow to the Ottawa convention, which has 164 signatory states at present and is widely credited with reducing the civilian casualties from landmines globally.
Anti-personnel landmines are small explosive devices, often made of plastic, designed to detonate under a person's weight or with a tripwire. They are attractive to militaries because they can block an enemy advance, channel forces into kill zones and protect defensive positions. They are a serious threat to civilians, often remaining lethal for decades after a conflict has ended.
Two months before he left office in the US, President Biden approved the delivery of anti-personnel mines to Ukraine to help stall Russian gains in the east of the country.
According to a 2023 report by Human Rights Watch, Russian forces have laid landmines in at least 11 of Ukraine's 27 regions since the start of the war in 2014, making Ukraine one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.
A report by the United Nations concluded that landmines had killed 413 civilians and injured another 966 between the invasion of February 2022 and December 2024. The Ukrainian defence ministry says that sapper squads have cleared almost 450,000 mines from de-occupied areas in the past three years.
Human Rights Watch has condemned the use of anti-personnel landmines, warning that they pose long-term dangers to civilians and hamper postwar recovery efforts.
Ukraine ratified the Ottawa convention in 2005 and destroyed millions of Soviet-era stockpiled mines as part of its disarmament obligations.
Roman Kostenko, chairman of the Ukrainian national security, defence and intelligence committee and a decorated special forces colonel said on Facebook that Kyiv 'cannot remain tied down in conditions where the enemy has no restrictions'. He added: 'This is a step that the reality of war has long demanded. Russia is not a party to this convention and is massively using mines against our military and civilians.'
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