Moves by five NATO countries to quit a treaty banning the use of landmines have experts worried, ahead of a Geneva meeting aiming to boost efforts on ridding the world of the explosive ordnance.
The decisions announced by Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland over the past three weeks are "a dangerous setback for the protection of civilians in armed conflict," the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
The first four countries said in a March 18 joint statement that "Russia's aggression" — evinced by its all-out invasion of Ukraine — forced them to start moves to pull out of the 1997 Ottawa Treaty aimed at eliminating anti-personnel landmines.
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