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☆ 4 key types of landmines, how they work, and their impact on the Russia-Ukraine war
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-13 | by ( Nathan Rennolds | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Here are the four main types of mines, how they work, and how they've impacted the war. Insider has looked at the four key types of landmines — broken down into two major groups — being used in the war, how they work, and the impact they've had on the conflict in Ukraine. In July, HRW said it had unearthed more evidence that Ukraine used the banned mines and has informed the Ukrainian government. Fragmentation minesFragmentation mines can be either bounding mines or ground mines. The Russia-Ukraine war has seen a variety of anti-tank mines used, including the PTM-1 and the TM-62M.

Persons: deminers, Vitaly V, HRW, OLEKSII FILIPPOV, Velyka Novosilka, Diego Herrera Carcedo, bobby, Bradley, Valery Zaluzhny, Zaluzhny Organizations: Service, The Times, German Army Combat Training, Blast, Rights Watch, Wikimedia, Getty, Anadolu Agency, HRW, DEL POZO, Washington Post Locations: Ukraine, Wall, Silicon, Russia, PMN, Ukrainian, Brovary, Kyiv, AFP, Mine

CNN —The Eiffel Tower was evacuated for several hours Saturday over a bomb threat, according to CNN affiliate France BFMTV. The three floors of the tower, as well as the courtyard, were evacuated while authorities assessed the threat, BFMTV reported. A large security perimeter was quickly established, and traffic was diverted, according to BFMTV, who added that a team of deminers were also bought on-site to assess the threat. “It’s a usual procedure in this kind of situation, which is rare nevertheless,” a spokesperson for SETE, the operating company for the Eiffel Tower, said, according to BFMTV. In 2019 the monument was evacuated and closed after a man was spotted climbing up the side.

Persons: BFMTV, ” Organizations: CNN, France BFMTV, Eiffel Locations: SETE, Paris

☆ Russian land mines pose a persistent and deadly threat in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

What lies beneath Land mines left by Russian forces in Ukraine pose a deadly threat to Kyiv's military - and civilians in liberated territory. On average, anti-vehicle mines caused more incidents with multiple fatalities than anti-personnel mines did. GICHD has documented at least 12 types of anti-personnel mines and nine types of anti-vehicle mines in use in Ukraine. Formerly occupied towns in Kyiv; Sumy, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv oblasts all saw a large number of mines, especially anti-personnel mines, left in place, Mathewson said. Ukraine is a signatory to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, and had been destroying its anti-personnel mines when the war began.

Persons: Mark Hiznay, ”, Adam Komorowski, Tymur Pistriuha, Hiznay, PARM, GICHD, Andro Mathewson, “, Komorowsi, Mick Ryan, Mathewson, Nacho Doce, Pistriuha, Komorowski, ” Ryan, Ryan, Jack Watling, Watling, ” Watling, demining Organizations: Russian, Reuters, HALO Trust, Human Rights Watch, Advisory, Geneva International Centre, Humanitarian, Ukrainian Deminers Association, Ukrainian, U.S . Army, Australian Army, REUTERS, HALO, Mines, Royal United Services Institute, United, Surveyors, State Emergency Service, Dnipro River’s Locations: Ukraine, Ukrainian, Russian, Russia, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Eastern Europe, South America, Caribbean, Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Germany, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia oblast, Kherson, Iraqi, Kyiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, ”, Vuhledar, United Nations, Nova, Izium

☆ An area of Ukraine approximately the size of Florida is now riddled with land mines, which could take hundreds of years to reverse: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Ukrainian troops face a perilous challenge in their continued fight against Russia — land mines. The mines have blighted an area of Ukraine roughly the size of Florida, per The Washington Post. Greg Crowther, the director of programs for the Mines Advisory Group, a nongovernmental organization that aids individuals affected by land mines, told The Post that the mine situation in Ukraine was unlike anything seen in recent decades. The report also detailed the lengths taken by Russian forces to make vast expanses of Ukrainian farmland either too difficult to navigate or effectively unusable. "To date, the Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts remain the most contaminated regions of all the liberated territories, as Russian forces had been present there for a longer period of time," the report says.

Persons: Greg Crowther, Vladislav Sokolov, Sokolov Organizations: Russia, Washington Post, Service, Russian, The Washington Post, Moscow, Mines Advisory, Post, World Bank Locations: Ukraine, Florida, Wall, Silicon, Ukrainian, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Kramatorsk, Donbas

☆ A Ukrainian donation drive built an 'Army of Drones' and picked up an unusual system called a 'Shahed Hunter' for Kyiv's forces
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

It has used the funds to purchase thousands of UAVs, and systems to hunt Russian drones. The Shahed Hunter system is a network of radars and signal jammers that can detect Russian drones from around 25 miles away, Fedorov said. It's unclear where, exactly, the Shahed Hunter systems have been used or how many times they have been deployed. But Fedorov noted that Ukraine needs more of the systems to defend against continuous waves of Russian drone attacks. On Sunday night alone, Ukraine's air defense systems shot down 35 drones — 30 of which targeted Kyiv, according to the country's defense ministry.

☆ A Ukrainian farmer stripped pieces off wrecked Russian tanks to make an armored, remote-controlled, mine-sweeping tractor
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Ukrainian farmer has redesigned his tractor to remove mines from his crop fields. He stripped materials from wrecked Russian tanks to make the tractor armored and remote-controlled. The farmer told Reuters that rescue services are too busy to remove mines from the fields. While these Russian booby traps often require experience and intense focus to remove, one Ukrainian farmer has taken matters into his own hands: He's decked out a tractor with pieces from wrecked Russian tanks to remotely de-mine his farmland. By scavenging armor from wrecked Russian tanks and military vehicles, he's reconfigured a tractor into a machine able to detect and remove mines.

☆ Ukrainian farmer comes up with novel way to demine his fields
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Vitalii Hnidyi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Vitalii HnidyiHRAKOVE, Ukraine, May 2 (Reuters) - A Ukrainian farmer has come up with a novel way to remove mines left in his fields after Russia's invasion -- he's kitted out his tractor with protective panels stripped from Russian tanks and operates it by remote control. After Russian forces were driven back from parts of eastern Ukraine by a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year, mines remained in many fields, making it perilous for farmers to sow grain for the next harvest. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said last week about 30% of Ukrainian territory had been mined by Russians and that the government was focused on de-mining agricultural land as quickly as possible. The amount of work is enormous," said Serhii Dudak, head of the demining unit now overseeing the tractor's work. "It would take years to demine this particular field by hand and to guarantee that there are no mines here."

☆ Human Rights Watch urges Ukraine to investigate antipersonnel mine use
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Human Rights Watch noted that it had also issued three reports last year accusing Russian forces of using antipersonnel mines in multiple areas across Ukraine since they invaded the country on Feb. 24, 2022. "Russian forces have repeatedly used antipersonnel mines and committed atrocities across the country, but this doesn't justify Ukrainian use of these prohibited weapons," he said. Human Rights Watch said use of antipersonnel mines also violates international humanitarian law because the devices cannot discriminate between civilians and combatants. Polishchuk told Human Rights Watch that Ukraine's forces strictly adhere to international humanitarian law and the 1997 antipersonnel mine convention. "Human Rights Watch documented PFM mine use in nine different areas in and around Izium city and verified 11 civilian casualties from these mines," it said on Tuesday.

☆ Ukrainians trying to clear land mines turn to Cambodia for help
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Fifteen Ukrainian deminers are being trained by experts in Cambodia who are among the world’s best because of experience from clearing the leftovers of nearly three decades of war. The Ukrainian deminers are being hosted by the Cambodian Mine Action Center, a government agency that oversees the clearing of land mines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. Cambodia was littered with land mines and other unexploded ordnance after almost three decades of war ending in the late 1990s. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen pledged in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in November to send Cambodian demining experts to help train their Ukrainian counterparts. Several other countries, including the United States and Germany, have already provided Ukraine with demining assistance.

☆ Free for a month, Ukraine's Kherson still toils to clear Russian traps
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

An elderly woman looks at damaged caused by overnight Russian shelling of a residential building on Dec. 1, 2022 in Kherson, Ukraine. Sunday marks exactly one month since Russia's troops withdrew from Kherson and its vicinity after an eight-month occupation, sparking jubilation across Ukraine. The regional administration said Saturday that shelling over the past month has killed 41 people, including a child, in Kherson, and 96 were hospitalized. When aid trucks arrived a month ago, war-weary and desperate residents flocked to the central Svoboda (Freedom) Square for food and supplies. Longer-term questions remain: Kherson sits in an agricultural region that produces crops as diverse as wheat, tomatoes, and watermelon — a regional symbol.

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