Poland wants to plant landmines on its borders with Russia and Belarus
Poland plans to plant anti-personnel mines on its borders with Russia and Belarus as part of the East Shield project, Polish Deputy Defence Minister Paweł Bejda has said.
Source: European Pravda, citing Polish news portal RMF24
Quote from Bejda: "We have no other choice. The situation on the border is serious. I'm talking about the Polish-Belarusian and Polish-Russian border... It will be one of the elements of the East Shield."
Details: He added that Poland does not have anti-personnel mines but has "the capacity to produce them".
"This [the production of landmines] will be carried out by the factories of the Polish Armed Group, but I don't want to go into details. We're talking about an order for several hundred thousand, we can talk about a million [units - ed.]," Bejda said.
Bejda's remarks come as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland announced their intention on 18 March to withdraw from the Ottawa Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.
Background: Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna previously commented on the Baltic states' and Poland's intention to withdraw from the convention banning anti-personnel mines. He argued that it is wrong for them to "forbid ourselves from using weapons that Russia is willing to use against us".
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