Ukraine on track to withdraw from Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, signed a decree on the withdrawal of the country from the Ottawa Convention, which prohibits the production and use of anti-personal mines on Sunday, the presidential website said.

Ukraine ratified the Convention in 2005.

“Supporting the proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to withdraw Ukraine from the Convention on the Prohibition of Use, Storage, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personcts and their Destruction of September 18, 1997,” said the decree, published on the Zelenskyy website, said.

A Ukrainian legislative superior, Roman Kostenko, said that parliamentary approval was still necessary to withdraw from the treaty.

“This is a step that the reality of war has long demanded. Russia has not gone to this convention and massively use the mines against our soldiers and civilians,” said Kostenko, secretary of the Ukrainian Parliament on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, on its Facebook page.

“We cannot remain attached in an environment where the enemy has no restrictions,” he added, saying that the legislative decision should definitively restore Ukraine’s law to effectively defend its territory.

Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release published on his website on Sunday that the use by Russia of anti-personal mines “has created an asymmetrical advantage for the aggressor”.

“We point out that at the time of the signing and ratification of Ukraine of the Ottawa Convention, such circumstances did not exist and could not have been planned,” said the press release.

In March, a joint declaration of the Ministers of Defense of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia recommended to withdraw from the prohibition of the earthly mine, citing the growing threat of Russia and its ally Bélarus as reason.

Russia has intensified its offensive operations in Ukraine in recent months, using significant superiority in the workforce.

Kostenko did not say when the question would be debated in Parliament.