In six months, Ukraine may begin using anti-personnel mines, particularly those not disposed of in 2005 – Fedir Venislavskyi

The use of anti-personnel mines is crucial for fortification. This is why Ukraine’s decision to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, which bans such weapons, is an urgent necessity. Ukraine should have taken this step as early as 2014 when russia – which never ratified the Ottawa Convention – began widely deploying anti-personnel mines, causing severe injuries to Ukrainian soldiers. Fedir Venislavskyi, a Ukrainian MP and member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, emphasized this during a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine.

“Abandoning the convention’s obligations is long overdue for Ukraine; it should have been done at the beginning of the war. I think that in six months Ukraine will be able to deploy anti-personnel mines. When the Ottawa Convention was ratified in 2005, the Verkhovna Rada allocated funds for the disposal of these munitions. However, due to a lack of resources, some of these cluster-type mines remain in storage. We will be able to use them for mine barriers to prevent enemy advancement. There are enough of them to hurt the aggressor,” he said.

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