Ukraine

On 29 June 2025, Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced that he had signed a decree calling for support for a proposal from Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) for Ukraine to withdraw from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC). The following day, Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) shared a statement from the MFA on Ukraine’s decision to withdraw from the Convention. If Ukraine formally submits a withdrawal to United Nations, Article 20 stipulates that it will not take effect until the end of any armed conflict in which the withdrawing State is engaged upon the expiry of the six-month period. Subsequently, on 21 July 2025, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, acting in his capacity as depositary, communicated the following: “In accordance with the provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, Ukraine has decided, as of July 17, 2025, to suspend the operation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction of September 18, 1997, signed on behalf of Ukraine on February 24, 1999 in New York.” The communication states that: “The above action was effected on 18 July 2025”.UN, “Ukraine: Communication, Reference: C.N.385.2025.TREATIES-XXVI.5 (Depositary Notification)”, 21 July 2025, available at: https://bit.ly/4lBjLeb.

This statement is without legal effect as it is not possible to suspend operation of the APMBC. The possibility of armed conflict involving a State Party in which it might use anti-personnel (AP) mines was specifically foreseen by the drafters of the APMBC and therefore it is not a fundamental change of circumstances that might allow suspension under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). Ukraine should rescind its unlawful suspension of its implementation of the APMBC without delay.

Extensive use of AP mines by Russian forces continued in 2024. Ukraine has also made considerable use of AP mines, making it responsible for the most serious violation of the prohibition on use by a State Party to the APMBC in the treaty’s history. The United States announced two transfers of self-destructing AP mines to Ukraine in November and December 2024. Ukraine’s acquisition of these AP mines is another serious violation of the APMBC.

In February 2025, the Committee on Cooperative Compliance welcomed the cooperative dialogue sustained with Ukraine and the information provided by Ukraine on its efforts to carry out investigationsAPMBC Fifth Review Conference, Final Document, 5 February 2025, at: https://bit.ly/4epFfIJ, para. 21. related to criminal offences between 24 February 2022 and 31 May 2024 concerning “the use of anti-personnel mines by unidentified military personnel of individual military formations in the territory of the city of Izyum, Kharkiv region, and surrounding areas.” As at June 2025, the pre-trial investigation in these criminal proceedings was ongoing.Statement of Ukraine on cooperative compliance, Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 17–20 June 2025.

Clearance and technical survey (TS) in 2024 increased significantly, due to expanded capacity. Ukraine’s national authorities also reported significant increases in survey and clearance across all types of operators, national and international, made possible by “massive use of demining machines and surface scanning unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)”.Email from Colonel Ruslan Berehulia, Head, National Mine Action Authority (NMAA) Secretariat, Ministry of Defence (MoD), 9 May 2025. While disaggregated data are collected and submitted to the Information System for Mine Action (IMSMA) and were reported to Mine Action Review in 2025, when presenting information on contamination internationally, Ukraine generally states the extent of its explosive ordnance (EO) challenge without disaggregation by weapon type, as the majority of hazardous areas present a mixed EO threat. Ukraine has institutionalised, in its National Implementation Plan for 2024–26, its intention to survey all accessible areas for all types of contamination, including AP mines, by the end of 2026.

• Mine Action Review recognises the extremely challenging circumstances Ukraine faces following the war
  of aggression launched by Russia in February 2022. Nevertheless, full compliance with the APMBC by every State Party is an international legal obligation.

• Ukraine should rescind its unlawful suspension of its implementation of the APMBC without delay.

• Russia and Ukraine should immediately halt all use of AP mines.

• Ukraine should ensure its forces cease use of AP mines and prosecute past offenders in accordance with its domestic law.

• Ukraine should also refrain from further acquisition of any AP mines by any method or source. Importation or other means of acquisition is also a serious violation of the APMBC.

• If it has not already done so by the time this report goes to print, Ukraine should expedite its processes for permission to operators to use explosives in clearance and destruction operations as well as subsequent accreditation to conduct explosive ordnance disposal (EOD).

• Ukraine should review its instructions to operators and processes for the issuance of cancellation certificates, which currently limit cancellation to battle area clearance (BAC) tasks with no history of evidence of AP mines (or cluster munition remnants, CMR).

• Ukraine should formalise a gender and diversity policy in mine action and continue its work to develop an implementation plan for this through its Gender in Mine Action Initiative group.

Click here to download the "Clearing the Mines 2025" report for Ukraine.