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Ukraine to Withdraw From Ottawa Treaty Banning Anti-Personnel Mines
Above: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, on June 25. Image copyright: Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images
The Spin
Pro-Ukraine narrative
Russia has never been party to the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines and the nation has cynically used these weapons to inflict death and destruction upon Ukraine. Ukraine needs to permit their use so that it can better defend itself.
Establishment-critical narrative
The trend of a number of Eastern European and Baltic countries withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention is a troubling one, undoing decades of progress on protecting civilians from the horrors of landmines. These weapons do not discriminate between civilians and combatants and can stay active years after a conflict is over.