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.

Joining a broader regional shift that has seen almost all European countries bordering Russia, with the exception of Norway, announce plans to quit the global treaty banning such weapons, Poland wants to use anti-personnel mines to beef up its borders with Belarus and Russia.

“We are interested in large quantities as soon as possible,” Deputy Defence Minister Pawel Zalewski told Reuters.

The mines would be part of the “East Shield”, a defensive programme aimed at fortifying Poland’s borders with Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, he said.

Asked whether production of mines could begin next year, once the withdrawal process from the Ottawa Convention was completed, Zalewski said: “I would very much like that… We have such needs.”

Poland began the process of withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention in August and had previously said it could start production of anti-personnel mines if needed, but that no formal decision had been taken. Zalewski’s comments are the first confirmation from Warsaw that it will go ahead with the move.

According to the Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor, Poland told the U.N. in 1995 that it had abandoned production of anti-personnel mines in the mid-1980s and the export of such weapons had ceased.

Belma, the state‑owned company that already supplies the Polish army with several other types of mines, said Poland would be equipped with millions of mines under the East Shield programme to secure its 800‑km (500-mile) eastern border.

“We are preparing for Polish demand … to amount to 5-6 million mines of all types,” Belma’s CEO Jaroslaw Zakrzewski told Reuters.

He added that, while the defence ministry has not placed an order yet, the company would be able to produce up to 1.2 million mines of all types, including anti-personnel mines, next year. Belma currently produces about 100,000 mines per year.

Polish anti-personnel mine production could begin once the treaty’s six‑month withdrawal period is completed on February 20, 2026, according to the Polish foreign affairs ministry.

Ukraine has also announced it is withdrawing from the 1997 Ottawa Convention, so that it can defend itself better against Russia, which is not a party to the treaty. Each side has accused the other of using anti-personnel mines during the war.

Other major powers that have not signed the treaty include the United States and China.