The Ministries of Defense of Georgia and Ukraine share information on the holding of military exercises Agile Spirit-2021. These exercises are being held at the Orfolo training ground in Georgia with the participation of various military contingents. The maneuvers themselves are defined as "meeting NATO standards."
One of the stages of the exercise is the mining of the area. This stage attracts special attention for a number of reasons.
Interest was aroused by the appearance of photographic materials on the official resources of the Georgian military department in social networks, some of which (photographic materials) were removed shortly after publication. At the same time, these photos remain among those posted on the Facebook page of the Ukrainian Navy.
In one of the photos, you can see a set of mines that are used in mining the area during exercises. Among others - the MON-50 antipersonnel mine. This is a Soviet-designed fragmentation mine. The use of antipersonnel mines during the Agile Spirit-2021 exercise when mining a section of the terrain indicates that Ukraine is far from fulfilling its obligations to comply with the convention.
Also in the photo you can see the presented map of the minefield - with a corridor between the areas saturated with mines in a checkerboard pattern (main photo to the material).
During the joint exercises, the tactics of installing anti-tank mines with the choice of tank-hazardous directions on the ground were worked out.
As a reminder, the Ottawa Treaty has been in effect since March 1, 1999, which prohibits the accumulation and use of antipersonnel mines. In 2005-2006, Ukraine joined the treaty and ratified it. Georgia did not do this. Having removed the photo with antipersonnel mines, the Georgian military apparently decided to “shield” their Ukrainian colleagues, but they themselves posted on the Internet evidence of their own violation of the convention - the use of antipersonnel mines during exercises.