Finland has withdrawn from the convention banning anti-personnel mines
11 January 01:17
Finland has officially withdrawn from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines. According to Yle, the denunciation of the agreement took effect on January 10, six months after the UN notification, reports "Komersant Ukrainian".
Now the country can once again include anti-personnel mines in its military arsenal. The decision is based on security considerations in connection with the deteriorating situation in Europe.
Finland began the process of withdrawing from the treaty in July 2025, joining other countries bordering Russia. Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland had previously taken similar steps. Lithuania officially withdrew from the convention at the end of December 2025.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb previously pointed to the threat from Russia and stated that the Finnish army would not use minefields in peacetime but would keep them in stock for defense purposes.
As reported by Reuters in July 2025, Lithuania and Finland plan to establish joint production of anti-personnel mines for their own needs and for supply to Ukraine starting in 2026. Lithuanian Deputy Minister of Defense Karolis Aleksa estimated the investment in this project at “hundreds of millions of euros.”
Poland began the process of withdrawing from the convention in August 2025. In mid-December, Polish Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski said that for the first time since the Cold War, the country would begin mass production of anti-personnel mines as part of the Eastern Shield program to strengthen its eastern border and would consider exporting them to Ukraine.
In August 2025, Roderich Kiesewetter, representative of the CDU/CSU bloc in the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee, called on Germany to withdraw from the agreement in light of the Russian threat. Ukraine also announced its intention to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, explaining that this was necessary to strengthen its defense.
The Ottawa Convention, signed in 1997 and entered into force in 1999, prohibits the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of anti-personnel mines, obliging participating countries to destroy their stockpiles. A total of 163 states have acceded to the document.
