One of these individuals is Oleksandr, who leads a small team of young sappers engaged in humanitarian demining efforts around Kyiv and other regions in northern Ukraine. Removing these mines is a painstaking and deadly process, often carried out by sappers, combat engineers tasked with everything from building bridges to clearing minefields. It could take centuries to clean up all the explosives at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. Some observers have even suggested it may never be completely demined. Mark Milley said last month that this the biggest problem for Ukraine to solve, and the leading cause of casualties among Kyiv's troops.Ī sapper checks an area as rescuers work at a residential building damaged by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's invasion on Ukraine, in the town of Izium, recently liberated by Ukrainian Armed Forces, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine September 16, 2022.īetween Russia's current defensive lines and the mines left behind from earlier phases of the war, Ukraine has effectively become the most mined country in the world - with some officials suggesting that over 40 percent of the country's territory may be contaminated. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. During the months leading up to the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russia built layers of elaborate defenses, with one of those fortifications being sprawling minefields along the front in the eastern and southern regions. Mines are, of course, also a huge problem on the front lines. The goal is simply to inflict as much damage as possible. For instance, they cruelly hide explosives in everyday household items like refrigerators, toys, and even children's books. And they often do so for no obvious tactical advantage. Russia has practically mined everything, Ukrainian military engineers told Insider in a recent interview. Occupying soldiers have left behind a deadly and vicious problem for Ukraine - one that will cause it headaches for years and years to come: the widespread deployment of land mines and traps. By some Western estimates, around 50 percent of what was initially seized has already been reclaimed by Kyiv's troops.īut expelling the Russians from towns, cities, and rural areas doesn't mean eliminating the threat altogether. Ukraine has been battling Russia's invasion for more than 17 months, but it's held it's own and even managed to liberate massive swaths of land that it lost early in the fighting.

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