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BRUSELAS 25 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The European Union recalled this Monday that it does not supply anti-personnel mines to Ukraine under the Ottawa Convention, following the move by the United States to send this type of weapons to kyiv, and recalled that Ukraine has the right to defend itself after Russia has turned the country into “the most contaminated by mines in the world.”
Once the United States has confirmed that it will send this type of weapons to Ukraine to contribute to the defense against the Russian invasion, a turn that the Pentagon attributes to the change in military tactics on the part of Russia, the EU Foreign Spokesperson, Peter Stano has ruled out that EU countries join this, since they are part of the international agreement that prohibits anti-personnel landmines.
“We have seen confirmation by the United States of its decision to supply anti-personnel mines to Ukraine. All EU Member States and Ukraine are parties to the Ottawa Convention. Therefore, EU Member States do not supply this type of weapons,” he noted.
In any case, regarding the use of this type of weapons in the war in Ukraine, Stano has attributed it to a response to Russia’s maneuvers, which have caused Ukraine to be “the country most contaminated by mines.”
“In their war of aggression, Russian troops leave mines and booby traps to deliberately cause injuries, deaths and damage among the Ukrainian civilian population,” he stressed. In this sense, it considers that kyiv “exercises its inherent right of self-defense” which is enshrined in the United Nations Charter.
Along the same lines, Washington, which is not part of the Ottawa Convention, has justified its turn in the anti-personnel mine policy because the Russian forces are prioritizing advances on foot to then open the way for other vehicles, contrary to what what they had been doing since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022.
In this way, the Pentagon considers that this type of material will help Ukraine “slow down” the movements of the Russian Army, in a context in which they are making progress in the Donbas region and when the return to the White House will occur in January of tycoon Donald Trump.