Finland reconsiders landmine policy in NATO's strategic shift
Finland is one of the best-prepared European countries for armed conflict, driven by decades-long neutrality policies. Now, there are voices in Finland discussing the need to reconsider banned weaponry due to Russian tactics in Ukraine.
Having recently joined NATO, Finland has a highly developed defence infrastructure in terms of armed forces and civil defence. As Janne Jaakkola, the Finnish Defence Forces commander, stated to the portal MTV, observing the Russian tactics of mass infantry assaults, Finland should discuss anti-personnel mines.
Like over 100 other countries, Finland signed and ratified the Ottawa Treaty in 2012, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel mines and mandates the destruction of existing stockpiles.
Janne Jaakkola noted that the security environment is now drastically different from when Finland joined the convention banning anti-personnel mines. However, he emphasizes that any decision in this regard belongs to the government.
Anti-personnel mines — an effective and inexpensive method of securing the front line
The Ottawa Treaty in practice bans the use of all anti-personnel mines except those that can be remotely detonated via a radio signal. This is a significant issue because such requirements greatly increase the cost, and to be effective, mines need to be numerous and inexpensive.
For this reason, the norm was various types of pressure or tripwire fuses, such as a thin fibre optic cable attached to a tree by a path. The downside of these solutions was that they remained active for decades after a war, posing a huge threat to civilians.
A classic pressure mine contains about a few hundred grams of explosive material, but there are also mines that rise into the air upon activation of the fuse. These are mostly variations of the German WWII "S-mine," containing several hundred grams of explosive material inside a steel casing, with an effective range reaching up to 30 metres.
Over time, particularly in the category of scatterable mines, such as those deployed by rocket launcher systems, simple self-destruct mechanisms were introduced to force self-destruction 48 hours after arming. However, these solutions are not reliable.
Anti-personnel mines — allowing defence of terrain with much smaller forces
A prepared minefield, especially when under the supervision of even small teams armed with anti-tank guided missile launchers, snipers or machine guns and mortars coordinating with drones, is an extremely challenging obstacle to overcome, even in the face of significant numerical superiority.
A good example of the effectiveness of mines is the failed Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region. Attacking in such conditions only with specialized vehicles, which then become priority targets, is practically impossible. For this reason, the norm in military tactics is to bypass minefields whenever possible.
