Ukraine’s decision this summer to withdraw from a major arms control treaty has made Canada’s task of training Ukrainian soldiers a lot more complicated.
On June 29, Ukraine announced it would be withdrawing from the Ottawa Treaty, a multinational treaty that prohibits the use of anti-personnel mines.
Capt. Christopher Danis, a combat engineering officer, told Canadian Affairs in July that Canadian instructors will continue to focus on training Ukrainians how to neutralize the threat of explosives — not to place more of them.
“[Ukrainian soldiers] have to know how to breach those threats. But they will not learn how to place those threats.”
But critics say Canada is walking a fine line.
“Everybody wants to support Ukraine and condemn what Russia has done. But it makes it difficult when Ukraine decides to take steps like this,” said Mary Wareham, deputy director of crisis, conflict and arms at Human Rights Watch.
“I think it’s going to be tougher to make the case that [Ukraine] needs to receive the funding for mine clearance when it’s laying landmines and making the problem worse.”
A Canadian accord
The 1997 Ottawa Convention, also called the Mine Ban Treaty, prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines. Anti-personnel mines can be scattered by enemy rockets, artillery, aircraft or drones — seeding large areas in minutes. But they are also planted defensively, to create protective barriers around likely areas of enemy movement.
Anti-personnel mines pose significant hazards to civilians, both during and after war. They detonate when a person snags a tripwire or applies pressure — sometimes as little as a few kilograms of force.
The Ottawa Convention does not ban anti-vehicle mines or command-detonated munitions, which are detonated by humans rather than indiscriminate triggers, and are therefore less likely to kill or injure civilians.
Canada played a critical role in the formation of the Ottawa Convention. In 1996, then foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy convened like-minded states and civil society leaders and challenged them to negotiate a global ban within a year. Canada spearheaded the fast-track talks that produced the agreement, which today counts 165 signatory nations.
The Ottawa Treaty is one of the most widely known Canadian contributions to international peace and security, says Erin Hunt, executive director of Mines Action Canada, a non-profit that advocates for the elimination of indiscriminate weapons.
“Landmines were banned because they killed civilians,” said Hunt.
Statistics suggest the treaty has had an impact. Global landmine and explosive-remnant casualties fell from about 20,000 a year before 1997 to about 6,000 in 2023. That year, 84 per cent of the victims were civilians, and more than a third of those were children.
Now, Russia’s assault on Eastern Europe is challenging these gains.
Poland, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — all of which are NATO member states that border Russia — have also moved to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention amidst fears of further Russian aggression.
Ukraine’s break
Ukraine says Russia’s own large-scale use of landmines, and the asymmetry between the two countries on the battlefield, makes adherence to the Mine Ban Treaty untenable.
“[In] light of the overriding priority to defend our states from brutal Russian aggression, to protect our land from occupation, and our people from horrific Russian atrocities, Ukraine has made the difficult but necessary political decision to stop the implementation of irrelevant obligations under the Ottawa Convention,” Ukraine’s foreign affairs ministry said in a June 29 statement.
Russia has never been a party to the Ottawa Convention and has used various types of anti-personnel mines both before and after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Early this year, Ukrainian authorities estimated about one-quarter of Ukraine was potentially contaminated with landmines and other explosive ordnance.
“We emphasize that at the time of Ukraine’s signing and ratification of the Ottawa Convention, such circumstances did not exist and could not have been foreseen,” Ukraine’s June 29 statement said.
But human rights groups say the treaty must be applied even in times of conflict.
“Using banned weapons is illegal,” said Hunt, of Mines Action Canada. “Even if you’re in war.”
“There are no wartime exemptions in the treaty,” echoed Wareham, of Human Rights Watch. “It applies in all times, in peace and in war.”
Wareham says the wave of treaty withdrawals sets a “really terrible precedent.”
“When you start saying the laws don’t matter, and you start saying the other side is violating them, therefore we can as well, you’re undermining the whole rationale, and that’s a dangerous place to be in.
Proponents say mines can be important for deterring infantry assaults and buying time for undermanned defenders. But Gary Toombs, an explosive ordnance disposal specialist with the human rights organization Humanity & Inclusion, is unconvinced.
“Anti-personnel mines offer marginal, short-lived military value,” said Toombs. Modern breaching tactics and engineer units — such as those that would be used in a future Russian invasion — would “be able to get through these minefields very, very quickly,” he said.
And the toll, he says, is decades of humanitarian, economic and environmental damage.
“Anti-personnel mines are produced for very little cost — around three U.S. dollars — yet the cost of locating them safely [for disposal]… just one mine can exceed over a thousand U.S. dollars.”
Canada’s position
Since 2015, members of the Canadian Armed Forces have been helping train Ukrainian soldiers as part of Operation Unifier, an operation originally located in Ukraine but that is today located primarily in Poland.
The Department of National Defence told Canadian Affairs that CAF members will continue to train Ukrainian soldiers to handle antipersonnel mines defensively — but not to deploy them as weapons.
Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention “does not prevent Canada’s training support” under Operation Unifier, which remains focused on “professionalism, capability and capacity,” the department told Canadian Affairs in an email.
Global Affairs emphasized that Canada will continue to adhere to the Mine Ban Treaty.
“Support for the Ottawa Convention and its universal adherence remains a core priority for Canada,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Canadian Affairs.
Canadian troops operating alongside non-parties to the treaty “will operate under orders to ensure that Canada continues to meet its own obligations … to refrain from assisting, encouraging, or inducing the use of anti-personnel mines by another state,” the department said.
Yet the on-the-ground reality creates practical challenges for Canada.
As Wareham points out: “In order to clear a mine, you need to know how to lay a mine … That raises this interoperability question about how do the forces of a state that has banned anti-personnel landmines support a military operation of a country that is violating the treaty.”
Anne Delorme, executive director at Humanity & Inclusion Canada, believes Ottawa should be more forceful in defending the treaty that takes its name: “Canada needs to be a little bit more courageous in its positioning,” she said.
Hunt agrees.
“The ban on anti-personnel mines is one of those things that people think of as uniquely Canadian,” said Hunt.
“And in this context in particular, with Canada very heavily connected to Ukraine on a … national level… we have an opportunity to be the friend that tells you what you don’t want to hear.
“We all know that it’s your best friend that’s going be the one that tells you when you’re making a mistake.”
“We all know that it’s your best friend that’s going be the one that tells you when you’re making a mistake.”
What an embarassing thing to write. Ukraine’s people are tortured, raped, killed on a massive level and thousands of children are being kidnapped. The fact is that to stop the russian hordes Ukraine needs to use mines – like the russians are doing. Ukraine wants to remove mines and stop the violent aggression against them.
I would tell my friend to come visit my country and see what they think. We don’t have russia as a neighbour. This is why Poland and the Baltics are leaving the landmine treaty.
“The ban on anti-personnel mines is one of those things that people think of as uniquely Canadian,” said Hunt. It’s a stupid ban that doesn’t work when the aggressor doesn’t care about the rule of law. Do these Canadians not understand that? Put yourselves in there shoes, wake up.