Finland Plans One Million Landmines as Peace Campaigners Urge a Halt

The Finnish Defence Forces plan to spend around €100 million rebuilding their antipersonnel mine stockpile and establishing a lasting domestic manufacturing capability. Production is targeted for 2028, with deliveries extending into the 2030s.

The procurement remains in preparation. Military officials are assessing industrial capacity, with suppliers and contracts still to be determined.

Finland prepares its factories

Colonel Riku Mikkonen, the Finnish Army’s inspector of engineers, says around six Finnish companies have the capacity to participate. Potential manufacturers include established ammunition producers and machining companies, with components potentially supplied by several businesses.

The military wants two categories of weapons: fragmentation mines activated by tripwires and mines activated by pressure.

Beyond the initial purchase, the objective is to preserve the ability to manufacture additional mines in Finland and increase output rapidly when required. That would make domestic production a continuing part of the country’s defense preparedness.

Russia’s war drives the return

Finland’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention, the international treaty banning antipersonnel mines, took effect on January 10, 2026. The treaty prohibits their use, stockpiling, production and transfer.

The Finnish government grounds its decision in the deterioration of European security following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It presents antipersonnel mines as an additional means of defending Finnish territory, drawing on the experience of large-scale ground warfare in Ukraine.

Antti Häkkänen, Finland’s defense minister, has pointed to Russia’s willingness to commit infantry despite heavy losses as part of the military case for restoring the weapons.

Finland says it will continue to meet its obligations under international humanitarian law and support humanitarian mine action.

Peace campaigners turn to international diplomacy

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, known as ICBL, launched an appeal on October 12, asking international leaders to intervene over production plans in Finland and Poland.

The letters were co-signed by Jody Williams, the campaign’s founding coordinator and a 1997 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Tamar Gabelnick, its director. Recipients included senior United Nations officials, European Union representatives, humanitarian organizations and foreign ministers, including Norway’s.

The campaign warns that renewed production could encourage wider proliferation and expose civilians to weapons that remain dangerous for decades after fighting ends.

It is urging both governments to cancel production plans, pursue alternative military capabilities and return to the treaty. The interval before manufacturing begins gives that diplomatic effort a concrete target.

“The decisions to produce, transfer, and use antipersonnel mines can still be stopped,” Gabelnick said.