WARSAW, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Poland’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention means it will be able to lay anti-personnel mines along its eastern border in the space of 48 hours if a threat emerges, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday, shortly before the withdrawal becomes effective.
As most of Russia’s European neighbours except Norway move to leave the treaty that bans the production and use of anti-personnel mines, Poland plans to deploy them as part of its “East Shield” project to secure its borders with Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
“We are in the process of finalising this mine project, which is crucial for our security, for the security of our territory and border,” Tusk told a press conference.
In December, Deputy Defence Minister Pawel Zalewski told Reuters that Warsaw would resume production of anti‑personnel mines for the first time since the Cold War to deploy them on its eastern border and potentially export them to Ukraine.
Poland began the process of withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention in August and will officially exit the treaty after a six‑month withdrawal period that ends on February 20, 2026.
(Reporting by Barbara Erling, Pawel Florkiewicz, Alan CharlishEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
