Russian forces have used more than a dozen types of antipersonnel mines since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, causing thousands of civilian casualties and contaminating vast tracts of agricultural land. The antipersonnel mines have been emplaced by hand, delivered by rockets, and—as a report from my colleagues at Human Rights Watch has documented—dropped from drones.
Now some neighboring countries, concerned about Russian aggression, are moving to withdraw from the international treaty ratified by 165 countries that comprehensively bans antipersonnel mines. Russia, China, the United States, and several other countries, are not party to the treaty, but most of Russia’s European neighbors are, including Ukraine.
As documented in the report, Russian forces are modifying commercial quadcopter drones to scatter antipersonnel mines in and around the city of Kherson, as part of a campaign that has killed dozens of civilians and injured hundreds. Russian military-affiliated Telegram channels show PFM-series antipersonnel mines—also known as “petal” or “butterfly” mines—being fitted onto the drones with a mechanism to allow them to be dropped from the drone.
The Russian drone campaign has prevented residents from moving around safely and from accessing essential goods and services. The attacks represent serious violations of the laws of war and have the overwhelming impact of spreading terror among the civilian population and forcing residents to leave Kherson.
Residents of Kherson are struggling to stay safe amid these drone attacks and their aftermath. Serhii Dolhov, 50, stepped on a PFM antipersonnel mine in November, while walking near his apartment building, eight kilometers west of Kherson. The mine that was apparently dropped by drone almost completely severed his left foot and pierced his right leg with plastic fragments.
Dolhov told my colleague: “I walked in this area a lot, so the mine must have appeared there maybe two or three days earlier. I am always looking up for drones, I wasn’t looking down for mines.”
A Firm Evidence Base
Human Rights Watch analyzed more than 80 photos and videos shared by witnesses and on social media. A video provided by a community leader shows a quadcopter drone hovering over the main road in Kherson’s Antonivka district and releasing five small munitions—which the community leader described as PFM antipersonnel mines—that landed on the street.
One photo posted to a Russian military-affiliated “Habr” Telegram channel on March 1 shows four of these landmines attached to the underside of a commercial quadcopter drone manufactured by DJI, a China-based company. The caption reads: “Today someone’s legs will get shorter.”
The mines dropped by quadcopter drones do not detonate upon hitting the ground, but function as intended, remaining in place until they detonate from the presence, proximity, or contact of a person or until they are located and destroyed. Russian forces are able to scatter the PFM mines in large quantities due to their small size and unique shape. The mine contains a toxic liquid explosive that detonates when pressure is applied to its body.
One Antonivka resident said that Russian forces started to drop the mines from drones near his home last September. He said the mines were green or brown, which made them difficult to spot, especially when they landed among fallen leaves.
A police representative confirmed that Russian drones had been dropping antipersonnel mines in and near Kherson. He said that the mines had injured police staff, including the head of demining operations.
Kherson city authorities are displaying posters in affected areas, like the city parks and putting notices on their Telegram channels to warn residents about the drone attacks and landmine danger.
The drone attacks have hindered efforts to clear landmines and explosive remnants of war. A resident of Antonivka said deminers had stopped responding to requests to clear mines due to the threat of drones. Another Antonivka resident said deminers stopped responding to calls because the area had become unsafe and Russian drones were targeting vehicles. Together with his neighbor, the resident said he had started to destroy the landmines “using a long stick and gunfire.”
Spreading Terror
Both Russian and Ukrainian forces possess PFM antipersonnel landmines. While their delivery from quadcopter drones is new, the mines still fall under the prohibition contained in the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, also known as Ottawa Convention, which Ukraine has ratified, but not Russia.
Russia’s mine use is contaminating civilian areas for the long term, both forcing some residents to leave and keeping others from returning. Russia did not respond to a request from Human Rights Watch to confirm that it is attaching antipersonnel landmines to the drones used in attacks in Kherson.
Two Chinese companies whose drones have been used by Russian forces for combat purposes acknowledged that they are aware of these reports, but stressed that such use was incompatible with the company policies. DJI told us that it has “unequivocally opposed attempts to attach weapons to our products and we refused to customize or enable modifications that would enable our products for combat use.”
Another China-based drone company, Autel Robotics, said that it “strictly opposes and prohibits any modification of its products for purposes related to weapons of mass destruction or endangering human lives.”
Potential Proliferation
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and uncertainty over Europe’s future security are contributing to the current moves by the governments of Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to withdraw from the Mine Ban Treaty.
In April, the Finnish defense technology company Insta publicly expressed interest in producing antipersonnel landmines if Finland completes its withdrawal from the Mine Ban Treaty. Insta has developed a remotely-detonated bounding munition as an alternative to antipersonnel mines that can be delivered by quadcopter drone. According to Insta’s chief executive officer, Tapio Kolunsarka, “the detonation mode of these munitions cannot be changed to victim activated. Therefore they are in compliance with existing law in Finland and international humanitarian law, including the Mine Ban Treaty.”
When viable alternative such as these exist, it’s hard to understand why antipersonnel mines are now needed. Re-embracing the production, transfers, and use of antipersonnel mines is a catastrophic step backward for humanitarian norms and threatens to erode fundamental tenets of international humanitarian and human rights law.
In his 2025 report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, the United Nations Secretary-General draws attention to new “production, use or transfer of long-stigmatized and widely prohibited weapons such as chemical weapons, cluster munitions and antipersonnel mines and the first-ever withdrawal from a humanitarian disarmament treaty.” He found that these developments had “raised serious humanitarian concerns, pushed beyond legal boundaries, set dangerous precedents, and propagated the dangerous and outdated idea that exceptional threats and military necessity could outweigh international humanitarian law.”
In response to the U.N. report, the International Committee of the Red Cross president Mirjana Spoljaric Egger warned the Security Council on May 22, “if you do not defend the rules of war today, you are accepting a world where wars are fought with increasing barbarity and disregard for our shared humanity.”
Indeed, using quadcopter drones to drop landmines is a barbaric development that needs to be condemned, especially by States parties to the Mine Ban Treaty as it runs counter to the overarching goal of putting an end to the suffering and casualties caused by antipersonnel mines. Defending the laws of war requires speaking up with norms are violated.
