Kiev has been actively using the banned munitions in Donbass despite being a signatory of the convention
Ukraine officially suspended its participation in the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention on Tuesday. The respective bill was passed by the country’s parliament and signed into law by Vladimir Zelensky.
The landmark agreement, also known as the Ottawa Treaty, bans the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines. Ukraine joined the treaty in 1999 and ratified it in 2005.
In announcing the decision, Zelensky claimed that it was necessary to withdraw from the convention to reach “at least parity” with Russia. Russia, as well as the United States, China, and several other countries, had never been a signatory to the treaty.
Kiev has never been fully compliant with the Ottawa Treaty, as it failed to destroy the vast stockpiles of anti-personnel mines that it inherited after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ukrainian forces have been actively using the banned munitions since the early stages of the conflict in Donbass, which erupted in the aftermath of the 2014 Maidan coup.
Ukrainian troops have often been seen deploying various anti-personnel mines, including Soviet-made MON-family directional mines, as well as the notorious scatterable PFM-1 ‘petal’ mines. The latter munitions, which are deployed through multiple rocket launcher-fired projectiles, have been repeatedly shot into densely populated civilian areas.
According to the Ottawa Treaty, a party to the agreement is allowed to withdraw from it “six months after the receipt of the instrument of withdrawal by the Depositary,” i.e. the UN Secretary-General. If the country is engaged in an armed conflict when this period ends, the withdrawal will not take effect until hostilities cease.
Ukraine’s withdrawal from the treaty, first announced by Zelensky on June 29, has been criticized by human rights groups. The use of anti-personnel mines only inflicts more casualties “over the short and long term,” Mary Wareham, deputy director of the Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division at Human Rights Watch, told the Kyiv Independent.
“Given that Ukraine is in the midst of a war, this is a symbolic move aimed at giving Ukraine political cover to flagrantly violate long-standing prohibitions on developing, producing, and using anti-personnel mines,” she stressed.
