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"No one can solve this problem alone, but together we can change things for the better." 

– Setsuko Thurlow
Hiroshima Survivor
June 6, 2016
January/February 2023
Edition Date: 
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Cover Image: 

OSCE in Crisis Over Russian War on Ukraine


January/February 2023
By Gabriela Rosa Hernández

Russia and its war on Ukraine are disrupting the work of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the leading forum for addressing security and stability concerns in that region.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe ministerial council met in December in Lodz, Poland. (Photo: OSCE/MFA Poland)For the first time, the annual OSCE Ministerial Council meeting, which took place Dec. 1–2 in Lodz, Poland, failed to adopt any decisions. This includes the failure to approve an OSCE budget proposal of $143 million that Russia, along with Armenia and Azerbaijan, blocked, according to Stephanie Liechtenstein in the Security and Human Rights Monitor newsletter.

Without a budget, the OSCE can operate only in a limited manner. Instead of undertaking new projects, including conflict prevention missions, it can implement only those already established in last year’s budget. “What else will be blocked by Russia?” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, the OSCE chair, said in his opening statement at the meeting.

Rau listed other OSCE activities that have been stymied by Moscow, including the election of the 2024 OSCE chair and a mandate for a special monitoring mission to Ukraine.

This year also marked the first time that a chair banned a foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov of Russia, from attending the ministerial council meeting, the Security and Human Rights Monitor reported. Poland refused to issue a visa for Lavrov to enter the country, but the Russian ambassador to the OSCE, Alexander Lukashevich, was present.

Russia condemned Poland’s decision, and Lavrov told a press conference Dec. 1 that “[i]t is important to say that Poland's ‘anti-chairmanship’ will one day be seen as the unsightliness period in the OSCE history. No one has ever done so much damage to the OSCE while being at the helm.”

Russia has long complained about the OSCE, which takes a comprehensive approach to regional conflicts, arguing that it should discuss hard security issues rather than human rights and fair elections. “Moscow is not yet considering withdrawing from the OSCE, or suspending membership, but [its] patience is not unlimited,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said March 3.

Liechtenstein wrote in Foreign Policy that Russia is using the budget as a “political tool to erode the activities of vital OSCE institutions.”

Russia’s war against Ukraine has created serious new tensions, with many OSCE participating states unified in providing military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Another irritant is the illegal detainment of three OSCE mission members by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Every year, foreign ministers from 57 OSCE participating states, including from Central Asia and the Caucasus, meet to make key decisions about the organization’s future agenda. The ministerial council is its central governing body, and decisions are made by consensus.

At the meeting, most states condemned Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and described it as a violation of the Helsinki Final Act, the OSCE founding document.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reiterated his call for Russia’s suspension from the OSCE. “You all have seen the horrors of this war, and the question now is what makes possible the presence of the Russian nameplate at the table,” Kuleba said Dec. 1.

But other participating states were cool to terminating or suspending Russian participation, and some states, such as Austria, Hungary, and Kazakhstan, criticized Poland’s decision to exclude Lavrov from the meeting. There is no clear mechanism for banning a participating state from the OSCE.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Dec. 1 that he regretted Lavrov’s absence. “Representatives of all states should be granted access to high-level meetings like the one today. Let us not destroy this unique platform that used to be our collective answer to the tensions of the Cold War and the deep divisions between East and West,” he said.

Many states still regard the organization as a useful platform for dialogue even when consensus is lacking. For instance, despite tensions with Russia, military information exchanges at the OSCE have continued at a high rate in 2022.

An OSCE official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arms Control Today that although many participating states empathize with Ukraine, all need to understand that Ukraine is not the only conflict in the OSCE region that needs to be addressed.

At the meeting, Victoria Nuland, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, stressed the OSCE’s value. “[I]t's important not just for Europe, it's important for the world because this organization has set the gold standard for tools that we are now exporting to other continents to help solve conflicts, defend democracy, defend a free press, defend security, and ensure military transparency,” she said.

North Macedonia will take over the OSCE chairmanship for 2023.

The OSCE evolved during the Cold War from a desire to help prevent interethnic conflict in Eurasia through monitoring missions and promoting human rights, free media, and fair elections. It contributes to arms control through the Vienna Document, which allows participating states to observe and notify each other about their military exercises and other relevant activities.

Russia and its war on Ukraine are disrupting the work of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the leading forum for addressing security concerns in that region. 

Mine Use Continues as Ban Treaty Marks Anniversary


January/February 2023
By Jeff Abramson

Member states of the Mine Ban Treaty, marking the convention’s 25th anniversary, renewed their condemnation of the weapons, which are still being deployed by some countries despite the prohibition and the great harm inflicted on civilians.

A Ukrainian team worked to clear mines and unexploded ordinance from the side of the main road leading to Kherson City, Ukraine, in November. Kherson was the only regional capital to be captured by Russia following its invasion on Feb. 24. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)According to the Landmine Monitor, Russia has used at least seven types of anti-personnel mines since it invaded Ukraine in February, leading to at least 277 civilian casualties in the first nine months of the year, a nearly fourfold increase in Ukraine over 2021.

The Monitor, in a report Nov. 17, also identified an escalation in landmine use by Myanmar, especially around infrastructure such as energy pipelines and mobile phone towers. The report has listed Myanmar, a nonstate-party to the treaty, as using landmines every year since it first began publishing in 1999.

It also identified new use of landmines by nonstate armed actors in at least five countries, including the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, and Myanmar.

During the treaty’s annual meeting of states-parties Nov. 21–25 in Geneva, delegates adopted language similar to past years that “condemned the use of anti-personnel mines anywhere, at any time, and by any actor, including by armed non-State actors.”

In an opening statement, Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN undersecretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs, said that “[t]he use of anti-personnel mines is unacceptable and violates key principles of international humanitarian law.”

At the meeting led by Alvaro Ayala, Colombia’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, landmine clearance extensions were granted to Afghanistan, Argentina, Ecuador, Guinea-Bissau, Serbia, Sudan, Thailand, and Yemen. Under the treaty, countries have 10 years to clear areas contaminated by landmines, but may seek extensions that set new deadlines.

Eritrea again failed to request an extension to its deadline, which had passed on Dec. 31, 2020. Delegates instructed the new president of the treaty, Thomas Göbel, Germany’s ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, to engage with Eritrea to resolve the issue by March 31 or refer it to the UN secretary-general. If that occurs, it would be the first time Article 8.2 of the treaty was exercised, bringing in the secretary-general to resolve compliance concerns.

In its statement to the meeting, Ukraine said Russia had used the mines as “a weapon of terror,” initially to hold captured territories and later “throughout the arable lands, in the houses, gardens etc.” prior to withdrawing from them. It also said Russia had in August “openly blackmailed the whole world, declaring that they laid mines at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plants and are ready to blow it up and turn into a scorched desert.” (See ACT, September 2022.)

More than 30 treaty members still have contaminated areas to clear, with many now having deadlines later than 2025. For those still with deadlines in 2025 or sooner, the Monitor assessed that only two were on track to do so. At the treaty’s 2019 review conference, members set the global goal of completing landmine clearance by 2025.

Despite the challenges of new use by a small number of nonstate actors and contamination remaining in more than 50 countries globally, the treaty is still widely considered a success, with 164 countries, including every NATO member except for the United States, as states-parties. Those parties collectively have destroyed more than 55 million stockpiled landmines.

The treaty was adopted on Sept. 18, 1997, and opened for signature that Dec. 3. Events to celebrate these anniversaries took place in many countries. In a Dec. 2 statement commemorating the treaty, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson drew special attention to retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a long-time treaty champion, saying that “he has helped us all envision a world free from the scourge of these weapons. The Biden-Harris administration is committed to continuing work toward this future.”

In June, the Biden administration reversed a Trump-era policy that permitted potential use of anti-personnel landmines globally, instead limiting them to the Korean peninsula, and indicated it would like to eventually join the treaty. (See ACT, July/August 2022.)

Member states again condemned landmines, which are still being deployed by some countries despite the treaty’s prohibition.

U.S. Said Mulling Cluster Munitions Request


January/February 2023
By Gabriela Rosa Hernández

Ukraine has pushed the United States to provide its armed forces with cluster munitions warheads, and the Biden administration has not rejected the request, according to CNN, even though the weapon is banned by more than 110 countries.

Part of a cluster bomb is seen in the village of Shevchenkove, Ukraine, after attacks by Ukrainian and Russian forces in October. (Photo by Alex Chan Tsz Yuk/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)Cluster munitions are gravity bombs, artillery shells, and rockets that fragment into small bomblets or grenades. They are controversial and widely shunned because they can inflict devastating harm on civilians.

Russian forces have used these weapons in attacks throughout Ukraine, resulting in numerous civilian casualties. Ukraine allegedly also has used them in its attempt to defend against Russia’s brutal assault, although far less than Russia. (See ACT, October 2022.)

CNN reported on Dec. 8 that senior Biden administration officials have been fielding Ukrainian requests for cluster munitions for months and “have not rejected [them] outright.”

Asked about the status of Ukraine’s request, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told Arms Control Today by email on Dec. 19 that “[w]e are not in a position to comment on internal deliberations regarding specific systems requested by Ukraine.”

The spokesperson reiterated the Biden administration’s commitment that, “as a general matter, we will continue to provide Ukraine with security assistance for as long as it takes and will continue to work with Allies and partners to identify and provide Ukraine with additional capabilities.”

“As Russia’s war against Ukraine has evolved, so too has U.S. military assistance, and we will continue to calibrate our assistance to align with Ukraine’s current and future battlefield needs,” the spokesperson said.

On Dec. 21, President Joe Biden hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House as Congress prepared to pass a giant annual spending package that includes an additional $44 billion
for Ukraine.

CNN said the administration has not taken the cluster munitions request off the table as a last resort in case Ukrainian munitions stockpiles run dangerously low. Russian forces are bolstering their defenses as the war enters a second year, and U.S. officials believe the conflict could enter a stalemate, The New York Times reported on Dec. 21.

“Providing banned cluster munitions to Ukraine or any other country is a flagrant rejection of the Convention on Cluster Munitions [CCM] and a blatant disregard for civilian lives.

Such a move risks exacerbating the existing humanitarian disaster in the country,” Hector Guerra, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines - Cluster Munition Coalition, said in a statement Dec. 19.

He called on states-parties to the CCM, which bans the weapons, to “react urgently to the prospect of further civilian harm from cluster munitions in the Ukraine conflict.”

“Any support for the country should be contingent upon unconditional respect for international humanitarian law and repudiation of any use of indiscriminate weapons,” he said.

According to CNN, Ukrainian officials have lobbied for dual-purpose improved conventional munitions compatible with the U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System and the 155mm howitzer. Ukrainian officials say the munitions would increase the capacity of the Ukrainian military by enabling more effective attacks on larger concentrations of Russian forces and equipment. The Ukrainians also claim that they would not use them in civilian populated areas as Russia has.

Asked by Arms Control Today to comment on Russia’s use of cluster munitions in Ukraine and the strategic considerations behind Ukraine’s request for cluster munitions, a spokesperson at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington said in a Dec. 13 email that “Russia’s use of these weapons is a part of their tactic aimed to threaten people, make them flee, capture the land, [and] force Ukraine to negotiations through terror. It’s the same tactic as the airstrikes on our energy infrastructure and leaving people to freeze to death in winter.”

Granting Ukraine access to cluster munitions would require the Biden administration to override a U.S. law that generally restricts the transfer of cluster munitions that result in more than a 1 percent rate of unexploded ordnance.

As stockpiles of U.S. munitions dwindle, Kyiv has told Washington that it could use U.S. cluster munitions sitting in storage, CNN reported.

Some cluster munitions disperse only two bomblets while others can spread up to hundreds of submunitions over a large area. These weapons are designed for use against massed formations of troops and armor or broad targets, such as airfields. But cluster submunitions sometimes fail to explode on impact and can kill or maim civilians who later encounter them. These unexploded submunitions may remain dangerous for decades.

In Ukraine, Russia’s short-range BM-21 Grad launchers are capable of firing cluster munitions warheads, although they usually carry unitary warheads. Longer-range systems such as the Smerch multiple rocket launcher, the Tochka, and Iskander ballistic missiles can also fire a cluster munitions warhead. Ukraine inherited some of these systems and a stock of cluster munitions including the Tochka and Smerch multiple rocket launchers, according to The Economist.

The 110 states that ratified the CCM include former cluster munitions producers France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Russia, Ukraine, and the United States have not signed the treaty.

The Biden administration has not rejected Ukraine’s request for U.S. cluster munitions to defend against Russian forces, according to CNN.

UN Security Council Extends 1540 Committee


January/February 2023
By Kelsey Davenport

After a contentious process, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a 10-year extension for a committee charged with preventing nonstate actors from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

Cellphone photo taken on Sept. 3 shows the scene of an attack by al-Shabab militants on the outskirts of Beledweyne, Somalia that killed at least 17 people. Al-Shabab is among the nonstate actors that the 1540 Committee works to keep from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. (Photo by Hashi/Xinhua via Getty Images)The 1540 Committee and its group of experts were established in 2004 by Security Council Resolution 1540, which requires states to adopt and enforce laws to prevent the transfer of weapons of mass destruction and related materials to nonstate actors.

The committee comprises the Security Council’s member states and is charged with monitoring implementation of the resolution and assisting states in meeting its legal requirements. This is the first multiyear extension of the committee’s mandate since February 2021.

In addition to extending the mandate through Nov. 30, 2033, Resolution 2663, adopted Nov. 30, charged the committee with conducting “comprehensive reviews on the status of implementation” of Resolution 1540 and submitting proposed revisions to its mandate by December 2027.

The resolution also calls on states to “take into account” how advances in science and technology effect implementation of the resolution and reiterates that the committee should take note of how these advances impact the “evolving nature of the risks of proliferation.”

In a Nov. 30 statement following passage of the resolution, Robert Wood, U.S. alternative representative of special political affairs at the United Nations, said that the United States welcomes the extension and that the committee “remains a critical tool for addressing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems.”

But Wood said that the United States was “disappointed that one council member blocked efforts to make the work of the 1540 Committee more efficient and effective.”

Wood was referring to Russia, which objected to elements of a draft resolution circulated by Mexico, the committee chair. The rejected elements included Mexico’s proposals for an annex to the extension resolution that would have outlined the responsibilities of the committee’s group of experts and for a paragraph urging the equal participation of women in committee activities.

The group of experts comprises nine individuals appointed by the UN secretary-general and approved by the committee to support its work.

Ahead of the Nov. 30 vote, France said that the role of the group of experts “deserves to be better defined.”

To gain Russia’s support, Mexico dropped the annex and moved the operative paragraph encouraging the committee to “give due consideration to the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all its activities” to the resolution’s preamble.

In a Nov. 30 statement, Vassily Nebenzia, Russian ambassador to the UN, commended Mexico for its work on the extensions and all of the Security Council members for a constructive and flexible approach. He described the extension as “crucial” to nonproliferation efforts and said that the 1540 Committee “remains totally relevant today."

Although the annex was removed, Resolution 2663 directs the committee to “review its internal guidelines on matters regarding its group of experts” by April 30, 2023.

Wood expressed hope that the review process for the group of experts will “lead to the very enhancements” that the United States wanted to see, but were cut from the resolution.

After a contentious process, the UN Security Council approved a 10-year extension for a committee charged with preventing nonstate actors from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

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