"Rights group accuses Ukraine of using prohibited land mines.
Human Rights Watch found evidence in
May that Ukrainian soldiers had fired 15 rockets at Russian forces, each
containing hundreds of small antipersonnel land mines.
Ukrainian soldiers fired artillery
rockets containing antipersonnel land mines into a Russian-controlled area of
eastern Ukraine last year in apparent violation of international agreements
banning the use of such weapons, a leading human rights group said in a report
released Friday.
The group, Human Rights Watch, called the mines “inherently
indiscriminate weapons” because of their inability to distinguish enemy
soldiers from noncombatants. It urged the Ukrainian government to “act on its
expressed commitment not to use banned antipersonnel land mines, investigate
the military’s use of these weapons, and hold those responsible to account.”
The Ukrainian government promised to
investigate the allegations against its soldiers during a June 21 meeting in
Geneva of nations that have signed the treaty banning the use of the mines, the
group said. Officials at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry in Kyiv and at its embassy
in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 1997, more than 100 countries agreed not
to use or maintain stockpiles of antipersonnel land mines, small explosive
weapons that are typically buried just below the ground’s surface. When stepped
on, they detonate with enough force to blow off a person’s leg.
Injuries from mines of this kind can
also be fatal.
The International Campaign to Ban
Landmines, which monitors treaty compliance and collects data on land mine
contamination, said that in 2021 at least 5,544 people had been injured or
killed by mines around the world. Most of those casualties were civilians, the
report said, half of whom were children.
Ukraine signed the agreement, often
called the Mine Ban Treaty, in 1999 and ratified it in 2005. The United States
and Russia have refused to join the pact.
In 2014, the Obama administration affirmed a Clinton-era policy
stating that the Pentagon would use antipersonnel mines only on the Korean
Peninsula, but the Trump administration overturned that directive in 2020,
citing a new focus on strategic competition with major powers. The Biden
administration returned to the Obama-era policy
in June 2022.
Russian and Ukrainian troops have
also widely used anti-tank land mines, which are much larger than antipersonnel
land mines and are typically designed to explode only when hundreds of pounds
of pressure are applied — such as when a truck or an armored vehicle drives
over one. These devices generally are not banned under international law.
In April, the Pentagon announced it was sending 1960s-era M21 anti-tank mines
to Ukraine. Washington has also sent Ukraine more than 14,000 155-millimeter
artillery shells called RAAMS, for Remote Anti-Armor Mine System, which break
open midair and release nine small puck-like munitions that fall to the ground
unguided. Each small mine contains a magnetic sensor that causes it to explode
when a vehicle approaches and is designed to self-destruct after a couple
days.
Human Rights Watch said it had
recovered evidence in May from areas of eastern Ukraine formerly held by Russian
troops indicating that Ukrainian soldiers had fired Russian-made artillery
rockets there that each contained 312 small PFM-1 mines. Often
referred to as a “butterfly” mine because of its
shape, the PFM-1 is believed to be a copy of a mine used by U.S. troops in
Vietnam that was made with a plastic case to make it more difficult to find
with metal detectors.
Human Rights Watch said it had found
15 photos on social media posted last autumn showing Russian-made rockets
bearing handwritten messages in Ukrainian, which the group said it believed
were tied to two fund-raising efforts wherein donors could have a personal
message written onto a weapon that would be fired at Russian forces.
Remnants of one rocket warhead that
Human Rights Watch later discovered in mined areas bore the same message
handwritten in Ukrainian."
Zelensky says that he loves Ukrainian children very much. So why is Zelensky killing them?
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