On June 20 Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he had signed a decree to pull his country out of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty which was signed by 164 nations and banned the production, use, or transfer of anti-personnel landmines. Ukraine ratified the convention in 2005. These types of landmines cannot discriminate between civilians and combatants, and remain active for decades, endangering especially children, farmers, and pedestrians. The war in Ukraine has lasted 1,222 days.
Ukraine might have gotten a cue from the U.S. for this decision. In 2021 White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the use of cluster munitions “would potentially be a war crime,” but in July, 2023 the U.S. Biden administration sent 3.2 million cluster munitions to Ukraine. Over 100 nations signed the 2008 international treaty of the Convention on Cluster Munitions which similarly banned the production, use, or transfer of cluster munitions.
