The Lithuanian parliament voted today to withdraw the country from the Ottawa Convention, which bans the use of anti-personnel mines, amid concerns about a military threat from neighboring Russia, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
All five EU and NATO members that border Russia - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Finland - have announced that they plan to withdraw from the international treaty because of the military threat from their significantly larger neighbor.
Before the vote in Lithuania, such a decision was made by Latvia, whose parliament approved such a step in April. After withdrawing from the convention, countries will be allowed to stockpile and deploy mines for six months after informing other signatories and the UN of their decision. None of the five countries has done so yet.
Russia is not a party to the Ottawa Convention and has used mines during its invasion of Ukraine.