US EditionPoland to start producing anti-personnel mines to lay along eastern border
Poland plans to produce 5-6 million anti-personnel mines for the East Shield border defense and potential export to Ukraine and NATO neighbors by 2026.
- Poland has decided to restart production of anti-personnel mines and plans deployment along its eastern border, with production possible after Feb 20, 2026, post-Ottawa Convention withdrawal.
- Poland began formal withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention, joining almost all European countries bordering Russia except Norway in a regional shift away from the treaty.
- Belma, state-owned munitions company, said Poland can produce up to 1.2 million mines in 2026, with demand estimated at 5-6 million .
- The mines will be integrated into the East Shield border fortification programme to secure Poland's borders with Belarus and Kaliningrad, with domestic needs prioritized and exports to Ukraine or NATO allies dependent on production capacity.
- The decision fits a wider regional reversal of Ottawa Convention commitments, as Poland restarts production abandoned in the mid-1980s alongside Lithuania and Finland planning 2026 launches and Ukraine withdrawing.
24 Articles
24 Articles
Poland wants to secure its borders with Russia and Belarus with anti-personnel mines.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung
KurierThe mines are said to be part of the defense project that secures the 800-kilometre-long eastern border, for which Poland withdraws from the Ottawa Convention, which prohibits the use of anti-personnel mines.
The Deputy Minister of Defence in Poland said that his country wanted to strengthen the eastern borders. ...
Poland has decided to restart production of anti-personnel mines for the first time since the Cold War.
Poland to start producing anti-personnel mines to lay along eastern border
Poland has decided to start producing anti‑personnel mines for the first time since the Cold War and plans to deploy them along its eastern border and may export them to Ukraine, the deputy defence minister told Reuters.
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