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Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine has led some EU countries to reassess use of anti-personnel mines leading to the prospect of their re-introduction to Europe after a long-standing ban under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have all recently announced their plans to withdraw from the treaty, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel mines.<\/p>\n The treaty was agreed\u00a0in 1997, since when 164 states have signed it\u00a0including all EU member states as well as most African, Asian, and American countries.<\/p>\n The 33 states which haven’t signed up include China, India, Iran, Israel,\u00a0North Korea,\u00a0Russia, South Korea and the US along with several Arab countries.<\/p>\n Anti-personnel mines were widely used around the world in 2024, according to the Landmine Monitor 2024<\/a>\u00a0report, published by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines \u2013 Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC).<\/p>\n In some cases, national armies or government forces have used them, such as Myanmar, which has deployed them since at least 1999, and Russia has made extensive use of them in its invasion of Ukraine, turning the country into the most heavily mined<\/a>\u00a0in the world.<\/p>\n Anti-personnel mines are also often used by non-state armed groups. This was the case in 2024 in Colombia,\u00a0Gaza,\u00a0India, Myanmar, Pakistan, and probably also in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Niger and\u00a0Nigeria, according to the report. At least 58 countries around the world are currently contaminated by anti-personnel mines.<\/p>\n A\u00a0‘weapon from the past’<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe know that over 80% of the victims of anti-personnel mines are civilians and especially children,\u201d Gilles Carbonnier, vice president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Euronews.<\/p>\n He considers anti-personnel mines \u201cweapons of the past\u201d,\u00a0since they principally kill and maim civilians and have\u00a0little military effectiveness.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, they often harm the army’s own side, their own soldiers or friendly forces. Second, clearance is extremely costly and takes a long time,\u201d he said, adding that Croatia has not yet cleared the last remaining mines from the Yugoslav Wars\u00a0of 35 years ago.<\/p>\n According to Landmine Monitor 2024, anti-personnel mines caused 833 casualties in 2023,\u00a0the highest annual number recorded since 2011.<\/p>\n But beyond fatalities, anti-personnel mines leave behind a long trail of wounded and mutilated,\u00a0according to Socialist Italian MEP Cecilia Strada, former president of the NGO Emergency, which was founded by her father in 1994.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw the first person injured by a landmine when I was nine years old. Then I counted hundreds of them,\u201d she told Euronews, recalling her past experiences in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia.<\/p>\n Civilians are the main victims\u201484% of all recorded casualties, according to the statistics\u2014because mines remain\u00a0in situ long after conflicts end. \u201cIn Afghanistan, I saw children stepping on landmines put there by Russians who\u00a0had left the country 15 years before,\u201d Strada said.<\/p>\n Women and children\u00a0are most affected in her experience. \u201cWhat happens in a war-economy, or a post-war economy? Men are at the front, or wounded, and so they can no longer bring home the bacon. So women and children graze sheep, take water from the rivers, cultivate the land, and go to collect metals.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBanning anti-personnel mines is quite obvious,\u201d she states, recalling EU law and the Geneva Conventions on humanitarian law. \u201cBut now, in Europe, we are going down a slippery slope.\u201d<\/p>\n The plans of EU countries<\/strong><\/p>\n Defence ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland issued a joint statement<\/a>\u00a0to explain their recommendation to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, citing a \u201cfundamentally deteriorated security situation\u201d in the Baltic region.<\/p>\n Contacted by Euronews, Estonia\u2019s Defence Ministry said that \u201cthere are currently no plans to develop, stockpile, or use anti-personnel mines.\u201d However, with this decision, the four Baltic countries are sending a clear message, as they write in the statement: \u201cOur countries are prepared and can use every necessary measure to defend our territory and freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n Finland\u2019s defence minister also explained<\/a>\u00a0the decision by stating: \u201cWithdrawing from the Ottawa Convention will give us the possibility to prepare for the changes in the security environment in a more versatile way.\u201d<\/p>\n Latvian government was even more outspoken in its answer to Euronews: “War in Ukraine has shown that unguided anti-personnel landmines, in combination with other mines and weapon systems, increase the lethality of defence forces by delaying or stopping Russian military mass movements”. <\/p>\n The Latvian Parliament will take the final decision on whether the country shall withdraw from the Ottawa Convention and Latvia does not currently plan to produce or transfer unguided anti-personnel mines to Ukraine.<\/p>\n On the contrary, use of landmines is not ruled out: “In our opinion, anti-personnel mines can be used, to disperse enemy forces or channelize and direct it to deny terrain to the enemy that cannot be sufficiently defended”, reads the government’s statement to Euronews.<\/p>\n The European Union\u2019s institutions are broadly in line with these plans, despite the EU\u2019s position on the topic being very clear: \u201cAny use of anti-personnel mines anywhere, anytime, and by any actor remains completely unacceptable,\u201d reads the official document<\/a>\u00a0on the ban against anti-personnel mines, adopted in 2024.<\/p>\n![\"Close](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/icon-cross-10x10-grey-6.svg.svg+xml\"){kind=icon}
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