Overview
- Poland formally withdrew from the Ottawa Convention on Feb. 20, reopening the option to reintroduce landmines scrapped after its 2012 ratification.
- Warsaw plans to buy anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines from domestic suppliers for potential deployment along the borders with Kaliningrad and Belarus.
- Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski called the mines a key element of defenses on NATO’s eastern flank.
- Officials say any emplacement would follow only a credible Russian threat, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk says the border could be mined within 48 hours once ordered.
- Landmines can endanger civilians for years after conflicts, as seen in Cambodia, Angola and Bosnia-Herzegovina, while anti-vehicle mines are not prohibited by the treaty.