- Title: On Ukraine's mine-strewn front, even the corpses can kill
- Date: 3rd August 2023
- Summary: KHARKIV, UKRAINE (AUGUST 2, 2023) (REUTERS) BLAST BOOTS ON DUMMY IN IHOR IEFYMENKO'S FACTORY 'BUTTERFLY' ANTI-PERSONNEL MINE VARIOUS BLAST BOOTS (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) BLAST BOOTS PRODUCTION FACILITY OWNER, IHOR IEFYMENKO, SAYING: "The idea came to my like in in the movies. One of my relatives lost a toe because he stepped on a butterfly anti-personnel mine. This shocked me, so I started thinking about ways to prevent such (injuries). Working in the production of protection gear, I turned to Ukraine’s State Emergency Services with my idea. I had a prototype of some kind of steel boots at that stage. They rejected this idea categorically, and inspired us to follow this type of boots instead. The prototype is from Canada." VARIOUS OF FACTORY WORKERS AND 3-D PRINTERS PRODUCING PARTS FOR BLAST BOOTS BLAST BOOTS ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, UKRAINE (AUGUST 1, 2023) (REUTERS) OLEKSANDR (NO SURNAME GIVEN), 128 MOUNTAIN ASSAULT BRIGADE'S ANAESTHESIOLOGIST, ENTERING SURGERY ROOM IN FIELD HOSPITAL, SAYING (Ukrainian): "This is our surgery room, where we are treating our patients." CATHETERS MEDICAL DEVICES OLEKSANDR‘S HANDS DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) OLEKSANDR (NO SURNAME GIVEN), ANAESTHESIOLOGIST WITH 128 MOUNTAIN ASSAULT BRIGADE, SAYING: "We had cases when five or six wounded people were brought in, and most of them turned out to be sappers. They had just been on a mission, were on their way back on the route that they themselves had already cleaned. One of them stepped on a mine and was blown up. The three others approached him to help, but they also stepped on mines and were blown up. Yes, these things do happen. There is such a densely mined area, that even one step away from the already cleared route may end rather fatally." UKRAINIAN FLAG PATCH ON OLEKSANDR'S ARM OLEKSANDR TALKING DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) OLEKSANDR (NO SURNAME GIVEN), ANAESTHESIOLOGIST WITH 128 MOUNTAIN ASSAULT BRIGADE, SAYING: "We would have liked just to wake up one day as if it were a nightmare, a bad dream and we just shrugged it off, washed with cold water and all of it remained somewhere behind. But this is the reality." VARIOUS OF OLEKSANDR TESTING DEVICES DEVICE OLEKSANDR’S HANDS
- Embargoed: 17th August 2023 10:01
- Keywords: Ukrainian army Zaporizhzhia offensive south Ukraine south-east war in Ukraine
- Location: ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, UKRAINE / KHARKIV, UKRAINE / UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, UKRAINE
- City: ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, UKRAINE / KHARKIV, UKRAINE / UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, UKRAINE
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe
- Reuters ID: LVA008147201082023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: CONTAINS PROFANE LANGUAGE
When they found the bodies of Russian troops at an abandoned position, something about the corpses looked wrong.
"There were three or four of their dead. Two guys were lying on each other, which made us suspicious, because if there had been an explosion they would have been thrown in different directions, but here, one is lying on the other," said Volodymyr, a 47-year-old sapper from 128 territorial defence brigade with possibly the most dangerous job in Ukraine: clearing landmines at the front.
"We did well by not touching them, because when we reached there with a 'kitten', we saw that under them was a PM mine," he said.
The kitten is a folding steel hook that sappers use to dislodge booby traps, nicknamed for its retractable tongs that spring out like cat's claws. The PM is a Soviet-era anti-personnel mine.
"It exploded and blew up both of them, but we stayed safe, thank God."
Occupying Russian troops have sown landmines and booby traps across hundreds of miles of Ukraine's front, a tactic that Kyiv's commanders describe as the primary reason why their long-awaited summer counteroffensive has slowed to a crawl.
For mine-clearers like Volodymyr, every day brings deadly risk, trying to make the ground safe, first for their fellow soldiers to advance, and eventually for civilians to go home.
"We lose one sapper every day, either wounded or dead. It's a dangerous job. And whether a whole brigade is advancing or around 12 guys go out on their mission, it's always the sappers that go first. It's very dangerous," he said.
The Russians "mine everything. Open doors, boxes and crates, even toys," he said. Even their own dead: "They know that our med-evac groups lift the wounded and the dead, under which they then find these explosives. And this is very dangerous for us."
Landmines inflicted a colossal toll in the first month of the counteroffensive launched in June, said Oleksandr, an anaesthesiologist with the 128 mountain assault brigade who treats battlefield wounds at a front-line field hospital.
Since the mines forced commanders to slow the advance, the number of wounded arriving at his hospital has tapered off markedly. But the sappers are still getting killed.
"We had cases when five or six wounded people were brought in, and most of them turned out to be sappers. So, there is such a densely mined area, that even one step away from the already cleared route and this may end rather fatally."
Ukraine's factories have tooled up to make equipment to help keep the sappers safer.
In addition to the "kitten" hooks, Volodymyr's unit has been sent "spider boots," which lift each foot off the ground on four metal legs, so any blast they set off will not be triggered directly under a sapper's body.
They are made by Ihor Iefymenko at a factory in Kharkiv, based on a modified Canadian prototype. He told Reuters he pitched the idea to the emergency services after a relative lost a toe to a butterfly mine.
Oleksandr, the medic treating sappers at the front, knows the danger won't end soon.
"We would have liked just to wake up one day as if it were a nightmare, a bad dream and we just shrugged it off, washed with cold water and all of it remained somewhere behind. But this is the reality."
(Production: Vladyslav Smilianets, Vitalii Hnidyi, Felix Hoske) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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