Finland to acquire anti-personnel landmines and start training staff

HELSINKI, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Finland’s military will initiate the acquisition of anti-personnel landmines and start training staff, conscripts and reservists to use them later this year, it said on Wednesday, after the country’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention that bans their usage took effect on January 10.

Finland and other European Union and NATO members bordering Russia – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland – decided to leave the Ottawa treaty amid concerns over the military threat posed by Russia.

Russia has used landmines in its invasion of Ukraine, and in July accused Ukraine of doing so too, after Ukraine announced its withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention.

In Finland, talks with the domestic defence industry and anti-personnel landmine training for military personnel will start early this year.

“The goal is to have the first new mines and their exercise equipment available in the course of 2027,” the country’s Defence Forces said in a statement.    

“New anti-personnel mines are intended to be developed in cooperation with the domestic defence industry with a further goal of manufacturing them in Finland.”

Finland does not plan to lay anti-personnel mines on the ground in peacetime.

“We will use mines only in emergency conditions,” said Colonel Riku Mikkonen, Inspector of Engineers for the Army Command.   

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen in Helsinki, editing by Ed Osmond)