Poland will withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, which bans anti-personnel landmines, in the coming weeks, a move aimed at giving the military greater flexibility to strengthen security along the country’s eastern border, Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk has announced.
The decision is part of Poland’s “Eastern Shield” defense program, News.Az reports, citing Polish media.
Tomczyk stressed that Poland’s withdrawal from the 1997 treaty will not lead to the immediate deployment of landmines along the border.
“This doesn’t mean that anti-personnel mines will suddenly appear,” he said. “It means greater freedom in using, producing, and storing them.”
According to Tomczyk, any potential use of landmines would be based on assessments by the General Staff and would occur only in response to genuine security threats.
He added that selected areas could be mined within 48 hours using Baobab-K mine-laying vehicles. These Polish-made systems are designed to rapidly deploy mines across large areas and are expected to enter service in the coming days.
Poland, together with the Baltic states, formally announced its withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention in July, arguing that Russia’s continued use of banned weapons has put them at a strategic disadvantage.