The UN’s top human rights official on Wednesday expressed grave alarm that six European countries are either in the process of or are considering withdrawing from the international treaty prohibiting anti-personnel mines.
Using mines is not necessary for repelling a Russian attack, but it makes it possible to repel it with less land area lost in the initial phase. The Russia is very weakened by its crazy war, but that is not a situation that will stay that way forever. In something a bit more than 5 years after this war ends, the Russia can very well have enough material to attack Finland. (It will probably attack Estonia or Latvia first. Most likely Estonia, because Narva is located in a very precarious location and taking Narva without NATO reacting would decrease NATO’s political ability to react to bigger things in the future.)
NATO is good to have, and it probably will help if needed, but for example Germany and France have shown that if the Russia says the word “nuke”, they reduce their help dramatically, and the country under attack is largely left to its own devices. It would be idiotic of western countries not to support Ukraine as much as possible, yet they do indeed only support it at a minimum level. Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania must be able to defend themselves adequately even without external support, because there’s not much reason to assume central European countries’ thinking about supporting a country in a war against the Russia would be very different in the future than it is now.
It’s theoretically possible that a country uses mines and still gets conquered, yes. But the likelihood is smaller. Also, what is much more important is that it’s not a black-and-white “you get conquered or you don’t”. There’s also the middle ground of “part of your country gets conquered for a while, then you regain that territory”. As is the case in Ukraine at the moment. The smaller that conquered part is, the less demining you need to do to remove the mines sown by the orcs. And if you are a small country like Finland fighting the Russia alone, fighting with other systems plus mines slows down the Russia more than fighting with those other systems only.
Also, mines are indeed generally not as useful as they were 100 years ago. But against the Russia they have been proven very useful in this war now. Not as useful as 100 years ago, true, but extremely useful all the same. Because the Russia is a country that works about the same way civilized countries worked some 100 years ago.
And, to your last point: You’re saying it’s unlikely that Finland would use mines in a responsible way. Why wouldn’t it? Remember, it’s Finland’s own people that will suffer from the mines. If we are irresponsible with them, it’s us that will suffer. This is a country where people take responsibility much more seriously than in any other country that I know. I do trust that the Finnish army does make maps of the minefields. What is the extreme thing that you’re claiming Finland would do, actually? Lay a minefield but somehow decide not to make a map about the mines’ locations? Why?
Using mines is not necessary for repelling a Russian attack, but it makes it possible to repel it with less land area lost in the initial phase. The Russia is very weakened by its crazy war, but that is not a situation that will stay that way forever. In something a bit more than 5 years after this war ends, the Russia can very well have enough material to attack Finland. (It will probably attack Estonia or Latvia first. Most likely Estonia, because Narva is located in a very precarious location and taking Narva without NATO reacting would decrease NATO’s political ability to react to bigger things in the future.)
NATO is good to have, and it probably will help if needed, but for example Germany and France have shown that if the Russia says the word “nuke”, they reduce their help dramatically, and the country under attack is largely left to its own devices. It would be idiotic of western countries not to support Ukraine as much as possible, yet they do indeed only support it at a minimum level. Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania must be able to defend themselves adequately even without external support, because there’s not much reason to assume central European countries’ thinking about supporting a country in a war against the Russia would be very different in the future than it is now.
It’s theoretically possible that a country uses mines and still gets conquered, yes. But the likelihood is smaller. Also, what is much more important is that it’s not a black-and-white “you get conquered or you don’t”. There’s also the middle ground of “part of your country gets conquered for a while, then you regain that territory”. As is the case in Ukraine at the moment. The smaller that conquered part is, the less demining you need to do to remove the mines sown by the orcs. And if you are a small country like Finland fighting the Russia alone, fighting with other systems plus mines slows down the Russia more than fighting with those other systems only.
Also, mines are indeed generally not as useful as they were 100 years ago. But against the Russia they have been proven very useful in this war now. Not as useful as 100 years ago, true, but extremely useful all the same. Because the Russia is a country that works about the same way civilized countries worked some 100 years ago.
And, to your last point: You’re saying it’s unlikely that Finland would use mines in a responsible way. Why wouldn’t it? Remember, it’s Finland’s own people that will suffer from the mines. If we are irresponsible with them, it’s us that will suffer. This is a country where people take responsibility much more seriously than in any other country that I know. I do trust that the Finnish army does make maps of the minefields. What is the extreme thing that you’re claiming Finland would do, actually? Lay a minefield but somehow decide not to make a map about the mines’ locations? Why?