Placing landmines is probably among the shittiest and most vile things someone can do.

Knowing that ten, twenty, maybe 50 years after a conflict ends a completely innocent and unrelated person, maybe even not born at the time you did it, might die or get permanently disabled is a sick move.

Place where I grew up is still full of landmines (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and some of the people who placed those mines are government officials today, loved by EU because of their natural resources.

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wesselbindt 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It is absolutely evil. Placing mines instantly puts you in the bad guy category as far as I'm concerned, no matter whom you claim you're "targetting". The Baltics withdrawing from the Ottawa treaty was an absolute disgrace. Indefensible.

	▲	matkoniecz an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> The Baltics withdrawing from the Ottawa treaty was an absolute disgrace. Indefensible. It is entirely defensible on account of wanting to reduce risk of being invaded by Russia. PS: Poland also exited the treaty. I entirely support use of mines on territory of mu country for purposes such as reducing risk of Russian invading Poland again. Though deployment should not be premature. But I hope that production and stockpiling of enough mines is ongoing. If you think that is indefensible - are you aware of how WW II went for Baltics, Poland, Belarus? In Poland about 16% of population was murdered, in Belarus about 20% of population was murdered. And Poland and Baltics got decades of occupation on top of that. Belarus still has not managed to get from Russia's boot as of 2026.

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yason 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Agreed.

Also I think that if you live next to a warmongering country you certainly care more about making a military invasion the shittiest and the most vile thing for the aggressor that you can think of and landmines are cheap and effective there.

I think it's a sufficient trade off that landmines self-disable themselves in, say, 5 years or so. If the war continues you'll keep planting more and when it ends you'll just wait a few years and go collect them.

	▲	expedition32 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You don't just collect landmines though. The Germans in WW2 had maps which they handed over to the allies but it still killed hundreds of people clearing the landmines. Eventually they decided to use German POWs.

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comrade1234 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

When it's a choice between existence and annihilation it's not so difficult a choice.

For example, Finland has a program that will mine the entire border with Russia in just hours if Russia invades.

	▲	elAhmo 19 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Placing mines on your own border for defense purposes is one thing. Doing an aggression in an independent country, placing mines there is completely different.
	▲	amelius an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		My gut feeling says that landmines can be more acceptable when placed in designated areas, for example a strip along the border with proper fencing. And maybe electronics to disable them when they are no longer necessary so they can be safely removed. This is a fundamentally different type of weapon than something that is hidden and anyone can inadvertently step/drive into.
	▲	Aldipower 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		And if it is correctly mapped and the map is well managed, then it is not quite as catastrophic as warlords simply burying mines somewhere indiscriminately.

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Chyzwar 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

In conflict between equals, landmines are the only practical way to restrict the mobility of the enemy. That's why 20% of Ukraine is contaminated by mines. If you were official and your choices would be losing and more people dying or placing more landmines that can be cleared over 20 years, what would you do?

	▲	wahnfrieden 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They can’t and haven’t