Published: 09:28, June 30, 2025 | Updated: 11:29, June 30, 2025
Zelensky okays Ukraine's withdrawal from treaty banning anti-personnel mines
By Xinhua

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, eastern France, on June 25, 2025. (PHOTO / AFP)

KYIV - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on Sunday to withdraw the country from the Ottawa Convention -- an international treaty that bans the use of anti-personnel landmines.

The decree approves the National Security and Defense Council's decision to pull out of the treaty "so as to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine."

The withdrawal will take effect once it passes parliament, said Ukrainian lawmaker Roman Kostenko.

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"Russia is not a side of this convention," Kostenko wrote on Facebook. "We cannot stay bound when the enemy has no limitations."

Ukraine signed the Ottawa Convention in 1999 and ratified it in 2005.