Which countries are quitting a key landmine treaty and why?
A notice warning about land mines is attached to a tree as a Ukrainian specialised team searches for mines in a field in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Jun 9, 2022. (File photo: AP/Natacha Pisarenko)
GENEVA: Ukraine has joined other countries bordering Russia in signalling that it will withdraw from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines, in the face of what they say are growing military threats from Russia.
NATO members Finland, Poland and the three ex-Soviet Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - have either withdrawn from the convention or indicated that they would do so, citing the increased military danger from their neighbour.
The moves threaten to reverse decades of campaigning by activists who say there should be a global ban on a weapon that blights huge swathes of territory and maims and kills civilians long after conflicts have abated.
Countries that quit the 1997 treaty, one of a series of international agreements concluded after the end of the Cold War to encourage global disarmament, will be able to start producing, using, stockpiling and transferring landmines once again.
