I wrote this on a lead-up article. Being against the use of landmines up until the point of “Well, it’s different now because we need them” is hypocritical.
That may be hypocritical, but having hostile neighbour, that itself doesn’t respect any conventions (and Russians absolutely don’t mind anti-personnel landmines among other things such as cluster munitions and chemical warfare) is a good stimuli to rethink ones principles.
This shows that the way to get rid of landmines is not to have countries sign a piece of paper. It’s to give them a better alternative, whether it’s literally peace, or another dirt-cheap area denial defensive weapon that isn’t indiscriminate. Because the paper is worthless once real stakes are on the line.
I think autonomous drones will eventually supplant landmines. Whether that’s better or worse, I don’t know.