Land of Mines – Minefields Continue to Present a Problem for Ukraine – If the war in Ukraine were to suddenly end tomorrow, it will still take decades for the country to recover. The fighting has likely scarred the countryside, and it will take decades or longer to heal. Landmines will likely be a problem that could injure or kill for many years to come.
Even today, more than 100 years after the end of the First World War, mines still present a problem – with portions of the Western Front in France still off-limits due to unexploded ordnance.
That is likely a problem for Ukraine in the future.
Yet, the untold number of mines that Russian forces have laid could be a short-term woe that is impacting Kyiv’s counteroffensive. The areas in front of Russian defensive strongholds in the south of east of Ukraine have been densely mined, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
Fields of Mines
Nearly across the entirety of the frontlines, the fields that Ukrainian forces must cross are littered with dozens of variants of mines and other trip wires, booby traps, and improvised explosive devices. Some are made of plastic and metal, but they’re all equally deadly.
“I couldn’t imagine something like this,” a Ukrainian private named Serhiy, who was part of a unit that rescued soldiers wounded by the explosions, told The New York Times. “I thought mines would be lain in lines. But whole fields are filled with them, everywhere.”
The paper of record also noted that mines of all varieties have been a staple of Russian warfare – dating back to the Cold War when the Soviet Army used mines extensively in Afghanistan. More recently, the Kremlin has employed mines in Chechnya, as well as in the earlier stages of the war in Ukraine dating back to 2014.
Moscow, not wanting to lose an inch of the ground it has captured, has deployed mines on a scale not seen in modern warfare.
Variety of Mines
Both Russian and Ukrainian forces have used at least 13 types of anti-vehicle mines, and Russian forces are known to have used at least 13 types of antipersonnel mines since the invasion began, according to a June 2023 landmine report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Mines have reportedly even surpassed artillery as the leading cause of wounds in the fighting in Ukraine.
Truly a Land of Mines
As previously reported, 65,000 square miles, an area twice the size of Austria – is contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance. It has been described as the largest deployment of such mines since the Second World War.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch warned last summer that Russia was using landmines and other ordnance “that are causing civilian casualties and suffering, as well as disrupting food production.”
The group detailed seven types of antipersonnel mines that Russian forces in Ukraine are known to have used since the Kremlin launched its invasion in February 2022. Among the mines being used by the Kremlin’s forces are POM-2 and POM-3 mines that are reportedly dropped indiscriminately by aircraft or fired from specialized ground launchers. Wired also reported last year that these are not buried but rather are scattered across large swaths of land.
However, Russia has not been alone in being called out by Human Rights Watch for its use of mines. Last month, the group announced that it uncovered new evidence of the indiscriminate use by Ukrainian forces of banned anti-personnel landmines against Russian troops who invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The group has called upon Ukraine’s government to follow through with a commitment previously made not to employ such weapons, investigate their suspected use and even hold accountable those responsible. Moreover, the news of that discovery came just before the United States also announced it would provide cluster munitions – internationally banned ordnance – to Kyiv.
History of Landmines
The use of landmines actually dates to the sixteenth century when the “fourgasses” were first employed in Italy. Those were essentially cannons that were buried underground and when detonated could shower rocks and other debris over a battlefield. However, these were not all that reliable, but they proved to be effective – which led to gradual advances in landmines.
The first true pressure-operated landmines came about two centuries later, and were described by eighteenth-century German historian H. Frieherr von Flemming as a weapon that “consisted of a ceramic container with glass and metal fragments embedded in the clay.”
Flemming’s innovation was largely theatrical, but it was during the American Civil War (1861-65) that such weapons were first routinely employed on the battlefield.
North Carolina native Gabriel Rains is far from the most notable Civil War figure, but he has the dubious distinction of perfecting the modern landmine. As a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy (West Point), Rains apparently had a high aptitude for chemistry and artillery and his “Rains Patent” was a mine made of sheet iron, with a fuse protected by a brass cap covered with beeswax. The mine was detonated by direct contact with the friction primer.
During the Civil War, Rains served with the Confederate Army and in the spring of 1862 was reported to have placed his early landmines on the roads to Richmond. Union cavalrymen and their horses became the first true mass causalities of the devious weapons.
Improvements to landmines continued, and anti-personnel mines were employed throughout both World Wars, while it was the regional conflicts that occurred during the Cold War that the use of such mines became an issue. By some estimates, more than twenty-six thousand people were the innocent victims of landmines each year in the 1990s due to leftover mines from those regional wars.
Even today, around the world there are countless unexploded landmines that continue to claim victims long after the actual fighting has ended. That will certainly be true for decades to come in Ukraine.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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