Zelensky approves Ukraine's withdrawal from treaty banning anti-personnel mines

Kyiv, June 30 (IANS) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree to withdraw the country from the Ottawa Convention -- an international treaty that bans the use of anti-personnel landmines.

The decree approves the National Security and Defense Council's decision to pull out of the treaty "so as to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine."

The withdrawal will take effect once it passes parliament, said Ukrainian lawmaker Roman Kostenko.

The 1997 treaty, joined by more than 160 countries, bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel landmines. It aims to protect civilians from these mines detonating after a conflict is over.

Anti-personnel mines often have no alternative for defence, according to Zelenskyy, who described them as the “signature style of Russian killers – to destroy life by all method at their disposal.”

"Russia is not a side of this convention," Kostenko wrote on Facebook. "We cannot stay bound when the enemy has no limitations."

Ukraine signed the Ottawa Convention in 1999 and ratified it in 2005, Xinhua news agency reported.

Several nations bordering Russia, such as Finland, Poland, and Estonia, have either withdrawn from the Ottawa Convention or have expressed intentions to do so.

After more than three years of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has become the most mined country in the world. According to a report it could take up to 30 years to complete the removal of mines, given that up to one-third of the country's territory is potentially hazardous.

--IANS

int/rs