Zelensky signs decree to withdraw Ukraine from landmine ban treaty

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree enacting a decision by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention banning antipersonnel mines, according to Roman Kostenko, a lawmaker from the Holos party.

“This is a step the reality of war has long demanded,” Kostenko wrote. “Russia is not a party to this convention and is using mines on a massive scale against both our military and civilians. We cannot remain bound by restrictions when the enemy faces none.”

Kostenko said he had been “just informed” that the decree had been signed. The presidential decree was later published, enacting the National Security and Defense Council’s June 29 decision. Kostenko added that the matter will now go before the Verkhovna Rada for consideration.

The Ottawa Convention was signed in 1997 by 164 countries. Signatories pledged never to use, develop, produce, or transfer antipersonnel mines, and to destroy their stockpiles. Russia, the United States, China, India, and Pakistan have not joined the treaty.

This past spring, the defense ministers of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland recommended that their governments exit the convention, citing what they described as a sharp rise in military threats to NATO countries bordering Russia and Belarus. Latvia’s parliament voted to withdraw in April, followed by Lithuania’s in May. In June, lawmakers in Finland and Poland also approved measures to leave the treaty.