Poland wants to plant landmines on its borders with Russia and Belarus

Poland plans to plant anti-personnel mines on its borders with Russia and Belarus as part of the East Shield project, Polish Deputy Defence Minister Paweł Bejda has said.

"We have no other choice. The situation on the border is serious. I'm talking about the Polish-Belarusian and Polish-Russian border... It will be one of the elements of the East Shield," Bejda said. as quoted by Polish news portal RMF24.

He added that Poland does not have anti-personnel mines but has "the capacity to produce them".

"This [the production of landmines] will be carried out by the factories of the Polish Armed Group, but I don't want to go into details. We're talking about an order for several hundred thousand, we can talk about a million [units – ed.]," Bejda said.

Bejda's remarks come as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland announced their intention on 18 March to withdraw from the Ottawa Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna previously commented on the Baltic states' and Poland's intention to withdraw from the convention banning anti-personnel mines. He argued that it is wrong for them to "forbid ourselves from using weapons that Russia is willing to use against us".