Poland eyes 1 million landmines for borders with Belarus, Russia

WARSAW, Poland — The Polish government has unveiled plans to boost domestic landmine production following an announcement that the country, along with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, would pull out the Anti-Personnel Mines Convention , also known as the Ottawa Treaty,

Polish Deputy Defence Minister Paweł Bejda said the country would launch production of the weapons in a bid to safeguard the country’s eastern borders with Russia and Belarus.

“We want these mines to be produced in Poland, we have such capacities. The issue at hand is to increase such capacities … and we treat equally the private defense industry and the state-owned one,” Bejda told local radio broadcaster RMF FM in an interview.

The Polish military needs landmines “in the range of several hundred thousand, even up to 1 million” units, he said.

Polish Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz has stated the process of withdrawing from the convention will involve the country’s Cabinet, parliament and president, and end with a notification to the United Nations. Following the notification, the withdrawal procedure could take around six months, he said.

Asked for details on which companies could produce landmines, the deputy defense minister said that Poland’s state-run defense group PGZ will be involved in the manufacturing.

Meanwhile, Latvia is “looking into all possible options when it comes to strengthening Latvia’s deterrence and defense capabilities,” Latvian Defence Minister Andris Sprūds said in a statement.

The Baltic nation “must prepare as Russia continues to pose a serious threat to the region, regardless of how hostilities in Ukraine develop. Withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention has the potential to ensure the production of anti-personnel mines,” Sprūds said.

Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.

波兰华沙——波兰政府宣布将与爱沙尼亚、拉脱维亚和立陶宛一起退出《反人员地雷公约》（又称《渥太华条约》），随后公布了提高国内地雷产量的计划。

波兰国防部副部长帕维尔·贝达表示，该国将开始生产这种武器，以保卫其与俄罗斯和白俄罗斯的东部边界。

“我们希望这些地雷在波兰生产，我们有能力生产。目前的问题是如何提高产能……我们对私营国防工业和国有国防工业一视同仁，”贝伊达在接受当地电台RMF FM采访时表示。

他说，波兰军方需要“几十万枚，甚至多达100万枚”地雷。

波兰副总理瓦迪斯瓦夫·科西尼亚克-卡梅什表示，退出该公约的程序将涉及波兰内阁、议会和总统，最终将向联合国提交正式通知。他表示，提交通知后，退出程序可能需要大约六个月的时间。

当被问及哪些公司可以生产地雷时，国防部副部长表示，波兰国营国防集团PGZ将参与制造。

与此同时，拉脱维亚国防部长安德里斯·斯普鲁兹在一份声明中表示，拉脱维亚正在“研究所有可能的选项，以加强拉脱维亚的威慑和防御能力”。

斯普鲁兹表示，波罗的海国家“必须做好准备，因为无论乌克兰的敌对行动如何发展，俄罗斯都将继续对该地区构成严重威胁。退出《渥太华公约》有可能助长杀伤人员地雷的生产。”

Jaroslaw Adamowski 是《防务新闻》驻波兰记者。