Ukraine sappers face new dangers
RUSSIAN MINELAYING GETS MORE LETHAL Soldiers killed by booby-trapped pack of Pepsi cans.
Adeafening explosion shakes the ground, sending lumps of dirt and smoke into the air, breaking the seeming tranquility of a cold January morning in the frozen fields of war-torn Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
After almost two years of grinding trench warfare against invading Russian troops, some 30% of Ukrainian territory is thought to be littered with unexploded mines.
“The Russians connect the mines,” Sergeant Boller, a Ukrainian sapper teaching recruits, said. “If you try to remove them, you can kill your entire unit,” he warned.
Getting rid of the mines is essential to Ukraine’s war effort, as they clear the way for offensive operations and allow civilians to return to their homes.
But sappers warn their already dangerous job is being complicated by a lack of recruits and ever-more lethal Russian minelaying techniques.
Holding mines in his hand, Anatolii, another sapper, warned new recruits of potential booby traps. “A banknote, a pack of cigarettes, a phone... It’s definitely a trap,” he told worried soldiers in the freezing cold. “We have even lost soldiers because of a booby-trapped pack of Pepsi cans.”
Sappers are often the first to get to the front line, clearing territory before assault troops arrive. The motto of Ukraine’s sappers is “always ahead of the first”, and they have more direct contact with the front line than other military units.
But it is difficult to find people willing to take such risks.
“In addition to distinguishing explosives, you need to know their chemical composition and how to handle them... You need to be educated,” said Boller. “It’s hard to find intelligent people who are not afraid,” he said.
Their job is “indispensable” in the war with Russia, the head of the Ukrainian army’s anti-mining department, Colonel Oleg Shyvarskiy said.
“Mechanised units will never start an offensive until the sappers have cleaned up,” he said.
He said their situation was “not critical” thanks to international assistance and the opening of new training centres. But he acknowledged recruitment difficulties and that most people “are afraid to train to be a sapper”.
Boller said he was once no more than 120m from Russian troops. “I heard them insulting me,” he said.
Ukrainian sappers increasingly encounter Russian tactics designed to make their job harder.
Kyiv says Russia’s minelaying strategy is constantly improving, combining anti-personnel mines and anti-tank mines, as well as explosives dropped by helicopter.
There is “innovation on the Russian side”, Shyvarskiy admits. He said Moscow is laying mines “randomly”.
“In some areas, mines are laid less than half a metre from each other.”
The true number of mines planted by Russia in Ukraine, he said, is impossible to know. “We will only know after the de-occupation of our territory.”
For Anatolii, 42, the job requires intuition since Russia is constantly setting traps. “Russia has very good sappers, perhaps the best,” he added.
Boller was covered in dirt after detonating an anti-tank mine during training. He tapped a mine with a shovel, as soldiers near him stepped back. “It allows soldiers to get used to explosions,” the 43 year old said. “We mostly work at night, testing the ground with a stick. We crawl on the ground, in the mud. The Russians plant them everywhere.”
Their job is indispensable in the war with Russia