Poland plans to place anti-personnel mines along its borders with Russia and Belarus as part of the Eastern Shield program, Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Bejda announced.

His statement comes as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland declared on Tuesday their intention to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty, which bans the use of anti-personnel mines.

“We have no other option. The situation on the border is serious. I am talking about the Polish-Belarusian and Polish-Russian borders… This will be one of the elements of the Eastern Shield,” Bejda said.

According to Bejda, Poland currently does not possess anti-personnel mines but has the capability to manufacture them.

“This will be done by factories of the Polish Armed Forces, but I do not want to go into details. We are talking about an order for several hundred thousand, possibly up to a million mines,” he said.

Commenting on the decision by the Baltic countries and Poland to withdraw from the convention, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna defended the move, stating that it is wrong to “forbid ourselves to use weapons that Russia is ready to use against us.”

The Ottawa Treaty prohibits Poland from using anti-personnel mines under any circumstances. It also bans the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, and transfer of such weapons to other states or non-state actors.

Recently, the defense ministers of the Baltic states supported their countries’ withdrawal from the treaty banning anti-personnel mines.

Despite plans to withdraw from the treaty, defense ministers from the Baltic states stressed that their countries would continue to adhere to international humanitarian law regarding warfare methods and the protection of civilians.

On March 7, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated in a speech before the Sejm that Poland intends to withdraw from treaties banning anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions.