In lack of funding, Ukraine uses a cruel weapon

Anti -personnel mines have exceptional sustainability, making it a problem for decades, capable of destroying lives well after the end of armed conflicts.Image: Sergey Kozlov / EPA / Pascal Bastien / AP

Ukraine wants to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention prohibiting anti -personnel mines. kyiv justifies this decision, in particular by the wait -and -see by its Western partners.

Stefan Schocher / CH Media

Land mines are a daily reality in Ukraine. The production of a copy of this effective but very problematic weapon costs no more than $ 75. In a conflict where military aid and funding are becoming increasingly rare, they have become a kind of defensive solution of last resort.

Last week, the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, said:

From now on, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree formalizing the exit from Ukraine from the Ottawa Convention, which prohibits the use of land mines. Like Ukraine, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, all countries on the western border of Russia, with the exception of Belarus, also announced their withdrawal.

Ukraine withdraws from the Ottawa Convention.Image: Pascal Bastien / AP

Why this ban on use?

Land mines are a sneaky weapon. Designed to last, they resist all weather, are camouflaged and generally react to pressure or vibrations. Depending on the size of their explosive load, they target either people or armored vehicles.

Experience shows that once posed, these mines remain a real problem for decades. Cartographing the mines fields is not enough, because they can move with the soil, sink, be moved or rejected elsewhere by bad weather, or remain hidden under the ground.

For demining, technological means remain insufficient, as these weapons are designed to destroy armored targets. There is therefore often only manual deactivation by specialists. But this method is very dangerous, especially when the bad weather degrades detonators.

Andriy, from the combined police of the police, cleans mines near the city of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine on October 24, 2023.Image: Sergey Kozlov / EPA

In countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Laos or Ukraine, recognizing mines is therefore part of basic education in primary school. And this, for only one reason: it is a question of survival.

Large powers have never signed

Land mines are in a gray legal area. The 1999 Ottawa Convention is binding for signatory states. According to this treaty, they have committed to renouncing the use, production and storage of anti -personnel mines. Stocks should be destroyed and mines fields cleaned.

Warning panels point out the presence of land mines near damaged electric lines in Ukraine.Image: Scott Peterson / Getty

166 States have signed the agreement, and 133 actually ratified it. However, many important countries have not signed it, among them Russia, as well as China, India, Egypt or the United States.

Ukraine signed the Convention in 2005, at a time when no conflict with neighboring Russia was envisaged. Conventional conflicts between regular armies then seemed to be the past.

Today, Ukraine is one of the most undermined countries in the world: it is estimated that around 137,000 square kilometers are tired, including significant agricultural land. However, this estimate does not distinguish between deliberately undermined areas and regions where a large number of unploded ammunition would be present.

A sign on the inscription “Attention Mines” is on September 13, 2022 on a road near the city of Balaklija in the Kharkiv region, in Ukraine.Image: Sergey Kozlov / EPA

The fragmentation weapons are also a problem: recently, Russia has bombed the kyiv metropolis with such ammunition. This type of warhead releases small explosive loads near the ground that disperse in the rain in an area. Many of these small charges do not explode immediately, which constitutes a permanent danger.

The Russians have undermined toys

Zelensky justified the now announced exit of Ukraine from the Ottawa Convention by stressing that Russia has never been a party to the treaty and that it cynically uses “all means at its disposal to destroy lives”.

Even around kyiv, many areas were still under Russian occupation during the first half of 2022, where the presence of mines is highly suspected. It is also confirmed that Russian troops have trapped everyday objects before their departure, including toys. However, financial and human resources are still lacking to carry out a systematic demining of these territories.

Zelensky also said:

You could easily see a clear message there. The less foreign aid arrives in Ukraine, the more kyiv is forced to resort to simple and effective cheap defensive solutions, even if we know that this will have long -term consequences.

Translated and adapted by Noëline Flippe

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