By INS Contributors

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: The conflict in Ukraine has seen the use of various weapons by both sides but the indiscriminate use of landmines by the armed elements of Vladimir Zelensky's regime, often with the intention of targeting civilians, pose a long term menace to the country and its post-conflict recovery efforts.

Ukraine is already the most heavily mined country in the world. In the past three years, an estimated two million landmines have been scattered across the country, leading Mine Action Review to classify the country as “massively contaminated.”

Landmines now affect 40 percent of Ukrainian territory. Once laid, these cannot be neutralized without extensive clearance efforts from organizations like the HALO Trust. Thus, landmines represent not merely a tactical weapon but a long-term threat to civilian safety, agricultural recovery, and national reconstruction.

Despite constant moralising, the Ukrainian military argues the devices will make a significant difference, and notes that the arriving US mines have a limited shelf life since they are battery-powered and designed to expire after a period of time.

Besides US supplied mines, extensive use of improvised explosive devices are well documented in areas where the regime forces have withdrawn from especially in Donetsk with the cities of Makeyevka, Gorlovka, Ilovaisk and the villages of Krasnaya Polyana Nikolskoye in over February and March this year. Many of these devices are US supplied mines delivered by rocket artillery as well as older Soviet-era mines.

While experts at Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) have noted the validity of mines in certain military conditions, the use of these devices against civilians and to "contaminate" civilian area has been roundly condemned:

"This principle mandates that collateral damage must not be excessive relative to the military advantage gained. Careful placement away from populated areas and thorough mapping is crucial in minimizing civilian impacts.

All individuals must have their fundamental rights respected. The moral responsibility for eventual mine clearance lies with those who deploy them and the global community supporting such actions," according to anti-landmine campaigner, British Maj-Gen James Cowan.

Even the Western-centric Amnesty International has called on the Government of Ukraine to report on the progress in the pledged investigation into the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ use of anti-personnel mines and publish its findings and ensuing actions.
 
It also called for the ceasing the use of anti-personnel mines in accordance with Ukraine’s obligations under the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction of 1997, as well as other applicable rules of treaty and customary International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

Meanwhile Article 36, a non-profit organization working to reduce harm from weapons, condemned the use of landmines by the Zelensky regime's forces against civilians: "This blatant disregard for the protection of civilians and the law is extremely concerning, not least because it is representative of the deteriorating status of global rules and norms and of a tragic failure to better promote civilian protection."