MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky has signed a bill suspending Ukraine’s participation in the Ottawa Treaty, or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.
"Without delay, I have signed a document submitted by the Verkhovna Rada [parliament], which suspends Ukraine’s obligations under the Ottawa Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention," he said on Telegram.
The country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved the measure on July 15. The document was submitted to the parliament on July 11, in accordance with Zelensky’s instructions, who tasked the government with "immediately ensuring that measures required to unilaterally withdraw from the Convention are taken by Ukraine without delay."
Ukraine signed the convention in 1999 and ratified it in 2005. As the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has said, Kiev did not comply with the treaty’s provisions before, using anti-personnel landmines against civilians.
Earlier, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Estonia announced their withdrawal from the treaty.
The Ottawa Convention entered into force in 1999, when 164 states, including Ukraine, joined it. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, anti-personnel mines cause a large number of civilian casualties and continue to pose a danger for many years after the end of hostilities.