Ukraine Pre-pares to Resume Anti-Personnel Mine Production

Key Points at a Glance

• Legal shift:

  • 29 June 2025 — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacts NSDC decision to denounce the 1997 Ottawa Convention.

  • Exit becomes legally effective six months after formal UN notification.

• Production plans:

  • Parliamentarian Fedir Venyslavskyi (Security & Defence Committee) says Ukraine can “launch national manufacture and purchase mines from non-signatory states.”

  • Technical preparations for production lines already under way.

• Operational use:

  • Mines would form defensive belts to slow Russian advances.

  • All minefields will be digitally mapped for rapid post-war clearance.

• Context:

  • Russia never joined the Ottawa Convention and has used anti-personnel mines extensively since 2014.

  • Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) and Finland likewise announced withdrawals in June 2025, citing heightened security threats.

Background & Rationale

“The convention left Ukraine at a disadvantage. Russia faces no legal limits, yet we were bound by a treaty that restricted our right to self-defence.”
— Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

• Unequal battlefield: Russia’s continued deployment of mines and cluster munitions created a strategic gap for Ukrainian forces constrained by international law.

• UN Charter Article 51: Kyiv argues that self-defence imperatives outweigh prior treaty commitments under current aggression.

Timeline to Deployment

International Perspective

• Ottawa Convention status: 164 parties by 2022. Withdrawal trend among states bordering Russia underscores regional security recalibration.

• Humanitarian considerations: Kyiv pledges strict adherence to mapping & future clearance protocols to mitigate civilian risk.