Poland Ramps Up Program To Lay Anti-Personnel Mines On Eastern Border
European allies have long been talking about implementing a 'drone wall' or shield to protect eastern and northern Europe, but now this protective shield could include land mines on the ground, in a dangerous development.
"Poland has decided to start producing anti‑personnel mines for the first time since the Cold War and plans to deploy them along its eastern border and may export them to Ukraine, the deputy defense minister told Reuters," the publication reports Wednesday.
The same report underscores that all European nations bordering Russia have ramped up such measures: "Joining a broader regional shift that has seen almost all European countries bordering Russia, with the exception of Norway, announce plans to quit the global treaty banning such weapons, Poland wants to use anti-personnel mines to beef up its borders with Belarus and Russia," Reuters continues. Poland borders Russia's Kaliningrad exclave.
Polish Deputy Defense Minister Pawel Zalewski confirmed the new landmine strategy: "We are interested in large quantities as soon as possible," he said in reference to what's being broadly called the "East Shield" program being pursued by Europe.
Warsaw is meanwhile in the process of withdrawing from a landmark 1997 anti-landmine treaty known as the Ottawa Convention:
Poland began the process of withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention in August and had previously said it could start production of anti-personnel mines if needed, but that no formal decision had been taken. Zalewski's comments are the first confirmation from Warsaw that it will go ahead with the move.
Earlier this year Baltic states said they are also abandoning the land mine treaty, calling it "paramount" that they to give their troops "flexibility and freedom of choice" to defend NATO's eastern flank.
"With this decision, we are sending a clear message: our countries are prepared and can use every necessary measure to defend our territory and freedom," the defense ministers Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland said last spring.
The problem with such mines is that they obviously kill without discrimination - including innocent men, women, or children who might be walking by - and anytime in the future.