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Finland’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention will take effect on 10 January. Finland remains committed to the humanitarian objectives of the Ottawa Convention. Finland’s decision to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention was based on an assessment of Finland’s Read More …
Civilian deaths and injuries from landmines and explosive remnants of war have risen to their highest level in four years, according to the Landmine Monitor 2025 report launched in Geneva on Monday. It documents 6,279 casualties in 2024. Children remain Read More …
Mine Action Review today published Clearing the Mines 2025, its annual global assessment of anti-personnel (AP) mine contamination, survey, and clearance, ahead of the TwentySecond Meeting of States Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC), taking place in Geneva Read More …
Ukraine, together with its international partners, is working to expand funding for the PURL program, which allows for the purchase of American weapons, including air defense systems and missiles for them. This was announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Read More …
The heightened security situation highlights the need for preparedness in both the Baltic Sea and Euro-Arctic regions. This was the key message from the international Rescue Borealis 2025 field exercise held in Oulu this week. EU Commissioner responsible for preparedness, Read More …
Five Nato countries neighbouring Russia or its ally, Belarus, have announced that they are to opt out of the Ottawa treaty of 1997. This treaty bans the use by signatories of anti-personnel (AP) landmines. These states – Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Read More …
The Finnish Defence Forces asks requests for participation requests related to the procurement of robots. The purpose of this procurement is to equip a part of Finnish Defence Forces EOD- and IEDD-teams with two different size robots. Robots will be Read More …
Lithuania and Finland look set to start domestic production of anti-personnel landmines next year to supply themselves and Ukraine because of what they see as the military threat from Russia, officials from the two NATO member states told Reuters. The Read More …
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had signed a decree to pull Ukraine out of the Ottawa Convention banning the production and use of anti-personnel mines as a necessary step in view of Russian tactics in their 40-month-old war. Read More …
The Finnish Parliament has approved the government’s proposal to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty, reversing the country’s long-standing commitment to banning anti-personnel landmines. The decision passed with 157 votes in favour and 18 against, with no abstentions and 24 members Read More …
The UN Secretary-General is set to launch a global campaign to boost support for disarmament and mine action. António Guterres announced the move in a statement issued on Monday, in response to plans by several UN Member States to withdraw from Read More …
The European Union has long stood at the forefront of the fight against anti-personnel landmines. Its early and active support for the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty reflected a shared European belief: that these weapons are inherently inhumane, fundamentally indiscriminate, and Read More …
Rights groups have expressed alarm and warned of a slippery slope of again embracing one of the world’s most treacherous weapons, after five European countries said they intend to withdraw from the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines. In announcing their Read More …
The Finnish government’s decision to prepare for withdrawal from the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel landmines risks weakening international law and damaging Finland’s global reputation, Amnesty Finland said on Monday. The treaty, which prohibits the use, production, storage and transfer of Read More …
NATO members Poland, Finland and all three Baltic states have queued up over the past few weeks to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines, in the face of what they say are growing military threats from Russia. The Read More …
Reacting to news that the Finnish government has initiated the process of withdrawing from the Ottawa convention, a landmark treaty prohibiting the use of anti-personnel mines, Esther Major, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Research in Europe, said: “The Finnish government’s Read More …
Finland will host Rescue Borealis 2025, a Nordic exercise focusing on the Euro-Arctic cross-border cooperation involving rescue services in Finland, Sweden and Norway, said the Ministry of the Interior in a press release on Monday. Rescue Borealis 2025 includes a Read More …
Britain and its European allies must urgently regain the ability to deploy landmines if they are to be able to counter the “terrifying” threat posed by Russia, experts have warned. Finland, a new member of Nato in the wake of Read More …
Specialized KFOR units from Finland, which deal with the identification, removal and destruction of explosive devices, had an exercise at the Bondsteel NATO base near Uroševac. Finnish EOD soldiers, assigned to the East Regional Command of the KFOR mission, recently Read More …
Virginia Army National Guard Soldiers assigned to the West Point-based 237th Engineer Company, 276th Engineer Battalion, 329th Regional Support Group conduct a mine detection and clearance training with the Finnish Army’s Karelia Brigade during Exercise Arctic Forge 21, Feb. 24, Read More …