Finland’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines has officially taken effect, according to a report published on Saturday by the Finnish public broadcaster Yle.

Helsinki formally notified the United Nations of its decision to denounce the treaty on July 10. The six-month withdrawal period required by the convention has now expired, bringing the exit into force.

The Finnish authorities have previously stated that leaving the Ottawa Convention does not mean an immediate return to the use of anti-personnel mines. President Alexander Stubb has said that Finland does not intend to deploy such weapons in peacetime and plans to keep them in storage rather than put them into active use.

The discussion around a possible withdrawal from the convention first emerged in November 2024, when Finland raised the issue alongside Poland and the Baltic states. At the time, Stubb linked the debate to what Helsinki described as security risks allegedly associated with Russia. Moscow has repeatedly rejected these claims, insisting that it poses no threat and pointing instead to a sharp increase in NATO activity near Russia’s western borders.

Russia’s ambassador to Finland, Pavel Kuznetsov, has said that Finland’s potential exit from the treaty is of no significance to Moscow. He argued that such a move primarily creates risks for Finland itself, since it would involve the mining of its own territory and could pose dangers to the civilian population.

The Ottawa Convention establishes a comprehensive ban on the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines and obliges participating states to destroy existing reserves. The agreement was signed in Ottawa on December 3, 1997, and entered into force on March 1, 1999. At present, 163 countries are parties to the convention.