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Russia’s use of landmines in Ukraine, including newly produced types, threatens to undo progress made on the issue over the past 25 years, a monitor said on Thursday.
Moscow has been developing new anti-personnel mines and has used them in the 2021 war in Ukraine, Landmine Monitor said.
The use of landmines in Ukraine and Myanmar has undermined the 25th anniversary of the 1997 Ottawa Treaty to Ban Landmines, the monitor said.
Its annual report identified 277 civilian casualties from landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) in Ukraine in the first nine months of 2022, a nearly five-fold increase from the 58 recorded in 2021.
“Russian forces have used at least seven types of anti-personnel landmines in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on February 24,” it said.
The monitor said it had also confirmed evidence that Russian forces had “placed victim-activated booby-traps and improvised explosive devices at numerous locations in Ukraine since February 2022, before retreating and abandoning their positions”.
In addition, “landmine dispersal” appears to have been used in several areas, many of which are under extensive Russian control, it said.
“The greatest challenge to the emerging norms for these weapons can be seen in their new uses,” it said.
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“Landmines continue to kill and injure civilians, destroy livelihoods, prevent land use and disrupt access to basic services in more than 60 countries and territories.”
Some 164 countries are bound by the Prohibition Treaty and have collectively destroyed more than 55 million stockpiled anti-personnel mines.
Russia is not a signatory, Ukraine is.
According to the report, at least 5,544 people will be injured or injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war in 50 regions of the world in 2021, including 2,182 deaths.
The number of casualties was lower than the 7,073 recorded in 2020.
It hit an all-time low of 3,456 in 2013.
“Casualties from landmines and explosive remnants of war have been disturbingly high over the past seven years,” the report said.
“This trend is largely the result of increased conflict and improvised mine contamination observed since 2015.”
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