US landmine offer to Ukraine throws global treaty into 'crisis': Campaign group
Published On : 2024-11-29T13:36:13+0530 [ IST ] |
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Joe Biden and Volodymyr ZelenskyySIEM REAP: A US offer to give Ukraine anti-personnel mines to help fight Russia's invasion has thrown a landmarkglobal anti-landmine treaty into "crisis
Ukraine is one of 164 signatories of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of landmines.
The United States, which is not, said last week it would transfer landmines to Ukraine prompting condemnation from rights groups.
The offer has thrown the treaty into "crisis", Tamar Gabelnic director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines told a meeting of signatories in Siem Reap Cambodia.
"We therefore hope very much that the mines offered by the US will be firmly rejected by Ukraine," she said.
"We have heard some concerns raised by the community," Ukraine defence official Yevhenii Kivshyk told the Siem Reap conference.
They will be handed over to the government of Ukraine.
Ukraine's delegation in Siem Reap has refused multiple requests by AFP journalists for comment on the landmine offer.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the mines "very important" to halting Russian attacks.
On Thursday an official from Finland's defence ministry said it was considering if anti-personnel landmines should be brought back into its arsenal.
Finland abandoned the weapon in 2012 when it joined the anti-mine treaty but advocates for their use argue the country's security environment has changed due to Russia's war in Ukraine.
Finland dropped decades of military non-alignment and became a Nato member last year.
It angered its eastern neighbour Russia with which it shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border -- the longest in the US-led defence alliance.
The Siem Reap conference is a five-year meeting held by signatories to the anti-landmine treaty to assess progress in its objective towards a world without antipersonnel mines.
On Tuesday landmine victims from across the world gathered at the meeting to protest Washington's decision to supply Ukraine with landmines.
More than 100 demonstrators lined the walkway to the conference venue.
Source : Reporters From Sunrise Chronicles
Tags : Kyiv , saidvolodymyr zelenskyysiem reap , Ban Landmines , Nato , Russian , Ukraine , The Siem Reap , Yevhenii Kivshyk , Tamar Gabelnic , siemled defence alliance ,
Summary :
Joe Biden and Volodymyr ZelenskyySIEM REAP: A US offer to give Ukraine anti-personnel mines to help fight Russia's invasion has thrown a landmarkglobal anti-landmine treaty into "crisis
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