UKRAINE USES PROHIBITED ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES IN THE DONBASS

The DPR People’s milita provided evidence that despite having signed international treaties banning their stockpiling and their use, Ukraine still possesses and uses anti-personnel mines, especially in the Donbass.

For the seventh year, the Donbass residents live in a state of continuous war. The armed forces of Ukraine use heavy artillery, mortars and shooting weapons. The use of anti-personnel mines, which are prohibited by international treaties, by the Ukrainian military is of particular concern.

During the briefing of the official representative of the DPR People’ s Militia Eduard Basurin, based on collected photos and video materials, we will show all the hypocrisy of the military and political leadership of Ukraine, which by falsifying data on the presence of anti-personnel mines is trying to once again accuse the Russian Federation and get additional funds from the EU countries.

In 1997, Ukraine signed the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which it ratified in 2005. The Ottawa Treaty bans the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines.

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties unequivocally obliges a State signatory to an international treaty to refrain from acts contrary to the objectives that such an instrument is designed to achieve.

In fact, Ukraine’s armed groups regularly using anti-personnel mines in the territory of the Donbass violate international law and the obligations assumed by the State to comply with them. At the same time, they accused the People’s Republics of receiving mines from the Russian Federation.

Presented by the Deputy Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the international organizations in Vienna Lossovsky, the KPOM-2 devices with the POM-2 anti-personnel mine are allegedly delivered to the People’s Militia of the DPR and LPR by the Russian side.

In November 2008, in a report to Landmine Monitor, Ukraine reported the destruction of its entire stockpile of anti-personnel mines, i.e. 238,010 pcs.

But judging by the conduct of practical training with the military personnel of Estonia and Finland in 2019, these mines, as well as the presence of PKM complexes for remote mining with KPOM-2 cassettes, are available in the AFU and are actively used both in training and in combat situations.

During the training camps with reservists, members of the AFU conduct engineering training sessions, teaching citizens the basics of subversion.

The classes include the entire range of anti-personnel mines which, according to the Ottawa Convention, Ukraine was to destroy under international supervision.

Cadets of military universities also receive training on the installation of anti-personnel mines, both in a guided version and on a stretch. The placement of anti-personnel mines in an unmanaged version is a direct violation by Ukraine of the Ottawa Convention. But everyone turns a blind eye to this, and international observers are not interested.

Based on the Landmine Monitor report, Ukraine retained 1950 mines (950 PMN and 1,000 PMN-2), allegedly for educational purposes. These so-called learning objectives are demonstrated by nationalists from the “Right Sector”.

Ukraine did not provide detailed information on the purpose and actual use of retained mines. However, the training of “Right Sector” fighters to conduct sabotage and terrorist attacks using anti-personnel mines with targeted and pressure action is freely demonstrated in public sources.

At the training centres, persons liable for military duty and members of the AFU receive a full training course on the handling of anti-personnel mines used by the AFU in the Donbass. Classes are conducted, among others, by instructors from NATO countries.…….

The rest of the story.

“ The former head of the engineering service of the National Guard of Ukraine, Vadym Yatsulyak, openly told media representatives about the use of anti-personnel mines by the NGU (National Guard of Ukraine) in the Donbass in 2017, the neglect of the Ukrainian side of the norms of international humanitarian law and morality, as well as pressure from the military and political leadership of Ukraine to force the NGU servicemen to mine the territory of the Donbass using anti-personnel mines.

The film about training of deminers of the National Guard of Ukraine confirms the words of Vadym Yatsulyak.

Despite the signed contract, the international commission of the NATO organization for logistics and maintenance established the presence of a whole arsenal of non-conventional weapons on the balance sheet of the forces supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Among them are 7,9412 PFM-1 “Petal” anti-personnel mines, 25,688 POM-2 “Otec” aviation units for the discharge of PFM-1 – 7,2720 pcs., 9M27K3 “Incubator” cluster rocket launchers – 1,0233 pcs., KPTM-3 cluster anti-tank mines – 3,0945 pcs., PTM-1G artillery shells – 650 pcs.

The leadership of the Ukraine’s Defence Ministry has repeatedly reported on the write-off of anti-personnel mines PFM-1, POM-2 and MON of various modifications, but the anti-personnel mines were sent to units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass, where they are used in violation of all conventions.

As can be seen on interactive maps of the mined territory of Donbass under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, minefields are located in places where there were no military operations. This must be one of the forms of mine disposal invented by Kiev.

By the example of one AFU document obtained through our exploration in 2017, we can judge the number of minefields, mines and their type.

On the basis of the document, four brigades have laid 356 minefields, of which only 81 have been completed. In total, 2,418 anti-tank mines and 1,028 anti-personnel mines were emplaced. There are 12 general army brigades on a permanent basis in the JFO area, of which 10 are at the front line.

During the work of engineering units of People’s Militia and Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republics on cleaning the territory of the front line, 114 explosive objects were found and destroyed.

At the request of the Procurator-General’s Office of the DPR, some of the mines that had been cleared were identified.

The data received directly indicate that the anti-personnel mines belonged to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

We present you a small part of the service survey for the detection and clearance of anti-personnel mines placed by the AFU in forest areas near once under their control.

The footage shows the detected anti-personnel mine MON-90, which is one of thousands of pieces left in the warehouses of the Kiev region in 1991.

All the mines found are destroyed using a consignment note charge.

Facts of the planting of anti-personnel mines are regularly noted in the reports of the OSCE SMM observers.

For example, on 25 April this year, observers recorded the unloading of four boxes of anti-personnel mines “MON-90” in the village of Popasnaya, and on 2 March, observers documented the planting of an anti-personnel mine “MON-90” in the Zolotoe area.

The uncontrolled use of anti-personnel mines by Ukrainian soldiers poses a direct threat to the life and health not only of civilians, but also of the Ukrainian soldiers themselves, who are regularly detonated by explosive devices planted by their predecessors and not marked on minefields maps.

According to available data for the current year, 88 people were killed and 246 injured as a result of explosions on their own anti-personnel mine blast fences in the zone of the so-called “Joint Forces Operation”. Despite this, the AFU command has no intention of abandoning the use of these munitions.

Thus, despite the convention signed by Ukraine, the fact remains that the AFU still uses anti-personnel mines. However, no one will officially confirm this. Everyone – from the Ukrainian government and military to international organizations such as the OSCE and the UN – lies in denying the use of anti-personnel mines.

Mining from the AFU with antipersonnel mines in the Donbass JFO zone is disguised as a “light” substitution of terms. According to the payrolls of the ammunition and explosives, anti-personnel mines in the AFU are now referred to as “engineering munitions”.

As one of the Ukrainian JFO officers commented, it is extremely difficult to prove the use of prohibited anti-personnel mines in the Donbass war – it is necessary to videotape the installation of the mines and provide evidence of the reliability of this recording. In fact, it is not profitable to prove it either to military or civil officials of Ukraine.

The answer to the question, “who booby-trapped the Donbass?” – is quite standard, you will hear it in any Ukrainian press center. Of course, separatists!

Expressing its commitment to the principles of international humanitarian law, as well as to the agreements developed in the framework of the Minsk negotiation process, the Donetsk People’s Republic calls on the world community and the guarantor countries of the Minsk agreements to use all available opportunities for de-escalation of the conflict, prevention of targeted crimes against civilians by armed groups of Ukraine, as well as prosecution of those guilty of committing war crimes in the Donbass territory.“

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