Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Sunday that he had signed a decree to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, which prohibits the manufacture and use of anti-personnel mines. He called the move necessary in response to the tactics used by Russia during their 40-month-long war.
Ukraine ratified the convention in 2005.
Other countries bordering Russia, notably Finland, Poland and the three ex-Soviet Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – have either withdrawn from the convention or indicated that they would do so.
Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that Russia had never been a party to the Ottawa Convention “and is using anti-personnel mines with utmost cynicism” along with other weapons, including ballistic missiles.
“This is a hallmark of Russian killers. To destroy life by all means at their disposal. … We see how our neighbours in Europe react to this threat,” he said.
“We also know the complexities of the withdrawal procedure when it is conducted during war. We take this political step and give a signal to our political partners on what to focus on. This concerns all countries that border Russia,” he said.
No Substitutes For Anti-Personnel Mines
Anti-personnel mines, Zelenskyy said, are “often the instrument for which nothing can be substituted for defence purposes.”
Russia has used anti-personnel mines extensively in parts of Ukraine where its forces have been operating. Ukraine sees the clearing of such mines as a key element in post-war recovery.
The decree appearing on the president’s website calls for support for a Ukrainian foreign ministry proposal to “withdraw Ukraine from the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction of September 18, 1997.”
A senior Ukrainian lawmaker, Roman Kostenko, said that parliamentary approval was still needed to withdraw from the treaty.
“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,” Kostenko, secretary of the Ukrainian parliament’s committee on national security, defence and intelligence, said on his Facebook page.
“We cannot remain tied down in an environment where the enemy has no restrictions,” he added, saying that the legislative decision must definitively restore Ukraine’s right to effectively defend its territory.
Russia has intensified its offensive operations in Ukraine in recent months, using significant superiority in manpower.
Kostenko did not say when the issue would be debated in parliament.
(With inputs from Reuters)
