"In a painstakingly slow process that has come to define the speed of the Ukrainian #counteroffensive, small groups of sappers on the front lines are crawling across minefields — sometimes literally on their stomachs — to detonate Russia’s defenses and clear a path for troops to advance.
...Areas between 3 - 10 miles deep... have been densely mined with antitank and antipersonnel #mines and trip wires."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/15/ukraine-war-russia-mines-counteroffensive/
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...Areas between 3 - 10 miles deep... have been densely mined with antitank and antipersonnel #mines and trip wires."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/15/ukraine-war-russia-mines-counteroffensive/
#Ukraine #Russia #War #RussiaUkraineWar
#News #WorldNews
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
•Rather than try to break through with the infantry fighting vehicles and battle tanks that Western allies provided to aid Ukraine in this counteroffensive, units are moving forward, slowly, on foot.
“You can no longer do anything with just a tank... because the minefield is too deep, and sooner or later, it will stop and then it will be destroyed by concentrated fire”"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/15/ukraine-war-russia-mines-counteroffensive/
#Ukraine #Russia #War
#RussiaUkraineWar #News
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
•The vehicles have won praise from soldiers — even after they’ve hit mines, most people inside survive with just minor injuries — but they have not been able to breach Russia’s defenses alone.
Zaluzhny has said modern fighter jets, such as the U.S.-made F-16, and other systems are needed to better support ground operations."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/15/ukraine-war-russia-mines-counteroffensive/
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#RussiaUkraineWar
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
•...Kyiv received less than 15% of the quantity of demining and engineering materiel... that it asked for from Western partners ahead of the counteroffensive."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/15/ukraine-war-russia-mines-counteroffensive/
#Ukraine #Counteroffensive
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
•The depth and density of the minefields are particular challenges along the southern Zaporizhzhia front line, where the Russians widely expected the Ukrainians to assault and attempt to sever a land corridor across the occupied region that connects the Russian border to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed in 2014."
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
•â€śBut now their use is already ineffective, because the enemy expects the appearance of such equipment, which is massive, which is noisy, which is easy to see and, accordingly, to strike,”"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/15/ukraine-war-russia-mines-counteroffensive/
#Ukraine #Russia #War
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
•Walking with a metal detector is unrealistic, sappers said, because they are too visible. So they crawl, relying on their vision to spot mines."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/15/ukraine-war-russia-mines-counteroffensive/
#Ukraine #Russia #War
#News