Zelensky Unleashes Landmines—Treaty Tossed Aside

In a move underscoring the brutal realities of war and the failure of international treaties to restrain aggressors, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree to withdraw his nation from the Ottawa Convention, an agreement banning anti-personnel landmines. With Ukraine facing the most heavily mined territory on Earth after years of relentless Russian invasion and aggression, Zelensky declared that his country can no longer abide by disarmament protocols that Russia never honored in the first place. Citing the need to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty and its people from the unchecked use of deadly weaponry by Russian forces, Zelensky’s decision embraces a hard truth: treaties that only restrain the victim, while empowering the aggressor, are not peacekeeping tools—they are vulnerabilities. As countries like Finland and Poland also question the effectiveness of such accords, Ukraine’s stance is a stark reminder that national survival cannot be dictated by principles the enemy refuses to respect.