How ‘industrial-scale’ Russian minefields are hampering Ukraine’s counteroffensive

Russia’s easily replenished ‘concrete wall’ has forced Kyiv to rethink its tactics – but hopes for a ‘hell for leather’ breakthrough remain, reports Andy Gregory

A Ukrainian ‘sapper’ wears ‘spider boots’ to minimise potential injuries from the mines they are tasked with clearing (Reuters/Viacheslav Ratynskyi)

Western hopes for Ukraine’s counteroffensive to achieve a dramatic breakthrough have been significantly pared back, with US officials now reportedly forecasting that Kyiv will fall short of its key aim of severing Russia’s land bridge with occupied Crimea.

One of the significant challenges confounding Kyiv’s efforts to redraw the front line is the millions of mines Russia has laid in their path, to the extent that Ukraine is now being described as the most heavily mined country in the world.

“What we are seeing is an industrial level of mine-laying, particularly anti-tank mines,” said Paul McCann, of the Halo Trust, the world’s largest humanitarian landmine clearance organisation. “Nothing like it [has been] seen in Europe since the Second World War.”