Group accuses Ukraine of using banned landmines

Ukrainian soldiers fired landmine-loaded artillery rockets into a Russian-controlled area in eastern Ukraine last year.

The group, Human Rights Watch, called the mines “inherently indiscriminate weapons” because of their inability to distinguish enemy soldiers from non-combatants. It urged the Ukrainian government “to act on its explicit commitment not to use banned anti-personnel mines, to investigate the use of these weapons by the military and to hold those responsible accountable”.

Human Rights Watch has released several reports on the use of landmines by Russian and Ukrainian forces since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian forces have used at least 13 types of anti-personnel mines “in multiple areas of Ukraine” that have killed and injured civilians, the group said.

The Ukrainian government promised to investigate the allegations against its soldiers at a June 21 meeting in Geneva of countries signatories to the treaty banning the use of the mines, the group said. Officials from Ukraine’s defense ministry in Kiev and the embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 1997, more than 100 countries agreed not to use or maintain stockpiles of anti-personnel mines, small explosive weapons typically buried just below the Earth’s surface. When stepped on, they explode with enough force to blow someone’s leg off.

Injuries from these types of mines can also be fatal.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which monitors compliance with treaties and collects data on landmine contamination, said at least 5,544 people were injured or killed by mines around the world by 2021. Most of those victims were civilians, the report said, half of whom were children.

Ukraine signed the agreement, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty, in 1999 and ratified it in 2005. The United States and Russia have refused to join the pact.

In 2014, the Obama administration reaffirmed a Clinton-era policy stating that the Pentagon would only use anti-personnel mines on the Korean peninsula, but the Trump administration overturned that directive in 2020, citing a new focus on strategic competition with major powers. The Biden administration returned to Obama-era policies in June 2022.

Russian and Ukrainian forces have also used anti-tank mines extensively, which are much larger than anti-personnel mines and are typically designed to detonate only when hundreds of pounds of pressure are applied to them — such as when a truck or armored vehicle is moving. more than one. These devices are generally not prohibited under international law.

In April, the Pentagon announced it would send 1960s M21 anti-tank mines to Ukraine. Washington also sent Ukraine more than 14,000 155-millimeter artillery shells called RAAMS for Remote Anti-Armor Mine System, which break open in mid-air and release nine small puck-like ammunition that fall unguided to the ground. Each small mine contains a magnetic sensor that causes it to explode when a vehicle approaches and is designed to self-destruct after a few days.

Human Rights Watch said in May it found evidence in areas of eastern Ukraine formerly held by Russian forces that showed Ukrainian soldiers there had fired Russian artillery rockets containing 312 small rockets each. PFM-1 mines. Often referred to as a “butterfly mine” due to its shape, the PFM-1 is believed to be a copy of a mine used by US forces in Vietnam that was made with a plastic casing to make it more difficult to find with metal detectors.

Human Rights Watch said it found 15 photos on social media last fall showing Russian-made missiles with handwritten messages in Ukrainian. weapon to be fired at Russian troops.

Remnants of a warhead that Human Rights Watch later discovered in mining areas carried the same message, handwritten in Ukrainian.

The group has released a series of reports since the start of the war describing evidence of Russian conduct that they believe constitutes war crimes. One published shortly after the invasion detailed examples of Russian troops raping and murdering Ukrainian citizens and committing other acts of unlawful violence.