Zelenskyy: Anti-personnel mines have no alternative for defense
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy considers anti-personnel mines to be a tool that very often has no alternative for defense.
"We are taking this political step and giving a signal to all our partners on what to focus on. This applies to all countries along the perimeter of Russia's borders. Anti-personnel mines are a tool that very often has no alternative for defense," he said in an evening video address on Sunday.
Zelenskyy noted that there are also difficulties in the withdrawal procedure, when it is carried out in conditions of war and seeing the reaction of European neighbors to this threat.
According to him, Russia has never been a party to this [Ottawa] convention and uses anti-personnel mines extremely cynically.
"This is a convention on the prohibition of anti-personnel mines. And not only now in the war against Ukraine. This is the signature style of Russian killers. Destroying life by all methods at their disposal. Both chemical weapons and ballistics, including medium-range missiles," the president said.
As reported, Zelenskyy implemented the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine dated June 29 "On Ukraine's withdrawal from the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction of September 18, 1997."