Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a decree for the country to withdraw from the Ottawa General Assembly that prohibits the production and use of anti-artificial mines, the president's website said on Sunday.
Ukraine ratified the Convention in 2005.
“Support the proposal proposed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requiring the convention prohibiting the use, storage, production and transfer of anti-artificial mines and the destruction of September 18, 1997,” the decree was published on the Zelenskyy website.
Ukrainian senior MP Roman Kostenko said the treaty still needs to be withdrawn.
“This is a step that the reality of war has always demanded. Russia is not a political party of the convention and uses a lot of mines to our military and civilians,” Kostenko, secretary of the Ukrainian parliament's National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee, said on his Facebook page.
“We cannot be bound in an environment where the enemy has no restrictions,” he added. He said the legislative decision must determine the restoration of Ukraine's right to effectively defend its territory.
Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement posted on its website on Sunday that Russia's use of anti-artificial mining “creates an asymmetric advantage for the invaders.”
“We stress that this situation did not exist and could not be foreseeable when Ukraine signed and ratified the Ottawa Convention,” the statement said.
In March, a joint statement from the defense ministers of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia recommended withdrawal from the mine ban, citing threats from Russia and its ally Belarus as the cause.
Russia's offensive operations in Ukraine have been strengthened in recent months, using significant human advantages.
Kostenko did not say when the issue would be debated in parliament.
