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Pivot by some countries toward landmine use appalls experts

Pivot by some countries toward landmine use appalls experts

Japan Times08-04-2025
Moves by five NATO countries to quit a treaty banning the use of landmines have experts worried, ahead of a Geneva meeting aiming to boost efforts on ridding the world of the explosive ordnance.
The decisions announced by Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland over the past three weeks are "a dangerous setback for the protection of civilians in armed conflict," the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
The first four countries said in a March 18 joint statement that "Russia's aggression" — evinced by its all-out invasion of Ukraine — forced them to start moves to pull out of the 1997 Ottawa Treaty aimed at eliminating anti-personnel landmines.
Finland followed suit last week with a similar announcement.
The steps come ahead of a three-day meeting starting Wednesday in Geneva organised by the U.N. Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD).
Tobias Privitelli, head of the GICHD, admitted to reporters that the meeting would take place in a "challenging environment."
Progress made over decades in ridding the world of landmines was at risk, he said.
UNMAS's head of policy and advocacy, James Staples, said nearly 60 countries or territories, from Ukraine to Myanmar to Sudan and Syria, are affected by explosive ordinance, and "millions of people suffer from their impact on a daily basis."
Adding to the headwinds faced by their two organizations was U.S. funding cuts to foreign aid.
While the United States is not among the 160 signatories of the Ottawa Treaty, it had been the single biggest national funder of mine action.
Washington had been providing over $300 million a year, or around 40% of total international support, according to the 2024 Landmine Monitor.
"The funding that they have provided ... has undoubtedly saved lives and made a difference to hundreds of thousands," Staples said.
While some short-term waivers have been granted to some programmes, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) cautioned that long-term funding was uncertain, with thousands of trained deminers currently sidelined.
In the three decades of the treaty's existence, the number of people killed or maimed by landmines went from 25,000 to below 5,800 in 2023, and millions of landmines destroyed worldwide, according to the Landmine Monitor.
Staples said that, when other types of explosive remnants of war, like cluster munitions and IEDs (improvised explosive devices), were factored in, the number of casualties reached around 15,000 in 2023.
The vast majority of victims of explosive ordnance — 85% — are civilians, and more than half of them are children, Privitelli noted.
He said that, in many territories, the threat of landmines lingers for decades after the end of a conflict, posing a persistent hidden threat.
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Russia Launches a Major Aerial Attack on Kyiv Hours before High-Level Talks on Support for Ukraine
Russia Launches a Major Aerial Attack on Kyiv Hours before High-Level Talks on Support for Ukraine

Yomiuri Shimbun

timea day ago

  • Yomiuri Shimbun

Russia Launches a Major Aerial Attack on Kyiv Hours before High-Level Talks on Support for Ukraine

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Russia launches major aerial attack on Kyiv hours before high-level talks on support for Ukraine
Russia launches major aerial attack on Kyiv hours before high-level talks on support for Ukraine

Japan Today

timea day ago

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Russia launches major aerial attack on Kyiv hours before high-level talks on support for Ukraine

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Zelenskyy and Barrot spoke about expanding defense cooperation, including a decision by French companies to start manufacturing drones in Ukraine, and advancing Ukraine's path toward European Union membership, the Ukrainian leader said on social media. The overnight drone and missile assault on Kyiv underscored the urgency of Ukraine's need for further Western military aid, especially in air defense, a week after Trump said deliveries would arrive in Ukraine within days. The virtual meeting of high-level military officials Monday was led by British Defense Secretary John Healey and his German counterpart Boris Pistorius. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and NATO leader Mark Rutte, as well as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, attended the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. Moscow has intensified its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities, and analysts say the barrages are likely to escalate as Russian drone production expands. Ukraine's new Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal urged allies to speed up deliveries of American air defense systems under the plan put forward by Trump. 'I request the U.S. to make these weapons available for purchase, and our European partners to extend all the needed financing for their procurement,' Shmyhal, who until recently served as prime minister, said as the meeting began. Trump's arms plan, announced a week ago, involves European nations sending American weapons, including Patriot air defense missile systems, to Ukraine via NATO — either from existing stockpiles or buying and donating new ones. In an shift of tone toward Russia, Trump last week gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to agree to a ceasefire or face tougher sanctions. At Monday's meeting, Healey was expected to urge Ukraine's Western partners to launch a '50-day drive' to get Kyiv the weapons it needs to fight Russia's bigger army and force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, the UK government said in a statement. NATO's Grynkewich told The Associated Press that 'preparations are underway' for weapons transfers to Ukraine while U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said he couldn't give a time frame. European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius visited Washington on Monday ahead of talks with U.S. officials about European defense and support for Ukraine. Speaking to reporters, he said he welcomed Trump taking a harder line on Putin, calling it 'a new opening in how we can support Ukraine.' 'We need to understand that if you combine American economic power and European economic power we are something like 20 times Russia's power,' Kubilius said. 'We need political will.' 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It said that the barrage successfully targeted airfield infrastructure and Ukraine's military-industrial complex. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 426 Shahed and decoy drones overnight Monday, as well as 24 missiles of various types. It said 200 drones were intercepted with 203 more jammed or lost from radars. Ukraine, meanwhile, continued to deploy its domestically produced long-range drones. Russia's Ministry of Defense said that its forces shot down 74 Ukrainian drones overnight, with almost a third of them destroyed close to the Russian capital. Twenty-three drones were shot down in the Moscow region, the ministry said, 15 of which were intercepted over the city itself. Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, David Klepper in Washington, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Stephen McGrath in Bucharest, Romania contributed to this report. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Japan's aid agency, UN sign deal to expand mine action cooperation
Japan's aid agency, UN sign deal to expand mine action cooperation

The Mainichi

time2 days ago

  • The Mainichi

Japan's aid agency, UN sign deal to expand mine action cooperation

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