Poland Withdraws from Ottawa Treaty to Resume Landmine Production
On February 20, 2026, Poland formally withdrew from the Ottawa Convention of 1997 to start the production and stockpiling of anti-personnel landmines. In light of the aggressive threat posed by Russia and Belarus, the deputy defense minister of Poland declared that the need for such mines is imperative for the “Eastern Shield” defense strategy. Despite the warning of the potential threat posed by such mines to civilians in the long run, Poland joins Ukraine and the Baltic states in re-evaluating the ban on mines to prevent Russian aggression.
Image credit: Rehman Abubakr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
