From Friday, Feb. 20, Poland will formally be able to restart production of anti-personnel mines as the notice period expires on its withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention, which bans the production and use of such weapons, the paper reported. Poland had been a signatory since 2013 and had scrapped its stockpiles during that time.
“After leaving the Convention, production of anti-personnel mines is planned on Polish territory. We have identified manufacturers and suppliers of this type of equipment,” the Defense Ministry said, according to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
The paper said the ministry does not disclose details of orders, but recent investment moves indicate production is likely to take place at Bydgoszcz Electromechanical Works Belma and at Radom-based company Pronit.
Minefields will form part of the “Eastern Shield” defensive system being built on Poland’s eastern and northern frontiers, the report said. Laying the mines will be carried out using Baobab-G and Baobab-K wheeled and tracked scatterable minelaying vehicles, for which contracts have already been signed.
The scale of Poland’s potential needs is illustrated, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna wrote, by Russia’s fortifications on the Zaporizhzhia front in 2023, the so-called Surovikin line. To secure one square kilometer of front, Russian forces used about 1,500 mines; in Poland’s case that could translate into 1.2 million to 1.5 million mines.
Andrzej Szewiński, deputy chairman of the parliamentary defense committee, told the paper the new capability is intended as a contingency.
“It will not be the case that we immediately mine the eastern border, but as part of operational plans we will achieve capabilities to secure this area in a short time,” he said. “That creates a certain dilemma for a potential aggressor, who will have to think ten times whether it is worth attacking. In peacetime the minefields will remain only on paper.”
Once domestic needs are met, Poland could become an exporter of anti-personnel mines, the newspaper reported. Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds has already expressed interest in cooperation, and surplus production could go to Ukraine or to other NATO countries bordering Russia, it added.
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Source: PAP