Ukrainian Parliament Approves Suspension of Ottawa Treaty
The Verkhovna Rada has voted to suspend the implementation of the Convention that restricted Ukraine’s ability to produce and use anti-personnel mines.
Member of Parliament Yaroslav Zhelezniak announced this.
Lawmakers approved draft law No. 0329, which halts Ukraine’s participation in the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.
299 Members of Parliament supported the decision. It provides for the suspension of the Convention’s application to Ukraine until the full cessation of Russia’s armed aggression.
Additionally, 305 MPs voted in favor of an expedited signing procedure — a fast-track mechanism by which the parliament urges the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada to sign the law immediately, without waiting for the standard time limits.
Previously, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention.
Roman Kostenko, Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, stated that this step is primarily driven by the realities of war, in which the enemy is not a party to the Convention and makes widespread use of mines in its war against Ukraine.
Ukraine signed the Ottawa Convention on February 24, 1999, recognizing the need to ban the use of anti-personnel mines. At the time of ratification, Ukraine possessed one of the largest stockpiles of such mines in the world, exceeding 6 million units, including PMN, PMN-2, POM-2, and other types that were prohibited under the Convention.
The disposal process took more than a decade. By 2020, Ukraine had declared the complete destruction of all banned types of anti-personnel mines, except for a small quantity retained for training and research purposes, as permitted by the Convention’s text.
It’s worth noting that the Convention also prohibits certain methods of mine use. For example, the MON-50 anti-personnel mine is not banned under international law or the Ottawa Convention if it is detonated manually by an operator.
Meanwhile, the use of such mines with tripwires or seismic sensors constitutes a direct violation of the Ottawa Convention, as in those cases, the mine is triggered by contact with a person.
It is worth noting that in 2025, countries such as Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia officially withdrew from the Ottawa Convention. The first statements of intent were made as early as March. All of these countries will formally cease their participation in the Convention six months after officially notifying the United Nations.
