Poland plans to lay antipersonnel landmines along the borders with Belarus and Russia

The Polish authorities plan to use anti-personnel mines as an element of defensive fortifications "Eastern Shield" on the borders with Belarus and Russia. This was stated by Polish Deputy Defense Minister Pawel Bejda on RMF FM radio station, BelTA reports.

"We have no choice. The situation on the border is severe. I am talking about the Polish-Belarusian and Polish-Russian borders. This will be one of the elements of the Eastern Shield," he said when asked about the reasons for the Polish authorities' intention to withdraw from the Ottawa conference on banning antipersonnel landmines.

Bejda noted that Poland needs up to one million anti-personnel mines and intends to produce them domestically. "This will be done by factories of the Polish Armaments Group, but I don't want to go into details," he added.

The day before, the heads of the Ministries of Defense of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia made a joint statement that they had recommended that their governments withdraw from the Ottawa conference on banning anti-personnel landmines. The deteriorating security situation in the region was cited as the reason for this decision.